Europe & Central Asia

New York, September 3, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that recent changes to Kazakhstan’s domestic media accreditation regulations and proposed changes to foreign media accreditation could be used to silence critical journalists. “New and proposed amendments to Kazakhstan’s accreditation regulations are excessive and open too many doors to censorship. Instead of the greater…

New York, September 3, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the Russian Ministry of Justice’s latest bid to intimidate the press by adding Galina Timchenko, exiled co-founder of the independent news site Meduza, to its list of so-called “foreign agents.” The ministry accused Timchenko — winner of CPJ’s 2022 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award —…

The Committee to Protect Journalist joined 25 civil society, human rights, press freedom and tech organizations, VPN companies as well as over a dozen journalists and activists, in a September 2, 2024, open letter calling for Apple not to comply with requests and orders to remove Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps from its App Store…

New York, August 30, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the sentencing Friday of Russian journalist Sergey Mikhaylov to eight years in prison on “fake news” charges and calls on Russian authorities to release him immediately.    “The sentencing of journalist Sergey Mikhaylov to eight years in prison on what Russian authorities label as ‘fake…

New York, August 29, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the decision by Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court in July to uphold the liquidation of Kloop Media, a nonprofit that runs the investigative news website Kloop. “The forced shuttering of international award–winning investigative outlet Kloop is a shameful episode in the history of modern Kyrgyzstan — a…

Berlin, August 29, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Russia’s recent launch of a spate of criminal investigations into foreign journalists reporting on the Ukrainian army’s advance into Russia’s Kursk region. Since the Ukrainian army started its incursion on August 6, Russian authorities have opened probes into seven foreign journalists accompanying Ukrainian forces to report on the conflict in the western town of…

Istanbul, August 27, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges X, formerly Twitter, site administrators not to comply with a Turkish court’s order to block accounts belonging to several journalists and media outlets. “Turkish authorities continue to practice the ‘virtual patrolling’ and censorship of social media users under the false guise of national security,” said Gulnoza…

New York, August 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Luksha, who received a presidential pardon after serving 30 months of a four-year prison sentence. “Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Luksha unjustly served 2 ½ years behind bars when he shouldn’t have spent a day in jail,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program…

New York, August 26, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans in an attack that also injured three journalists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. “The missile strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and injured three other journalists is a sad and sobering…

New York, August 21, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Belarusian journalist Ksenia Lutskina, who has served nearly half of an eight-year sentence, following a presidential pardon. Lutskina was among 30 political prisoners who were involved in “protest activities” and suffered from serious health issues and chronic conditions in jail who were pardoned by…