Europe & Central Asia

Istanbul, June 24, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to immediately release journalist Fatih Altaylı following his June 22 arrest and imprisonment on accusations of threatening Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in connection with his commentary on a public poll. “Fatih Altaylı’s arrest is a blatant attempt to intimidate an influential commentator into self-censorship,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s…

Paris, June 23, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Ukrainian journalist Vladislav Yesypenko and Belarusian journalist Ihar Karnei, who had been unjustly detained for years by Russia and Belarus, respectively.   Russia freed Yesypenko on June 20 after he served a five-year prison sentence on charges of possessing and transporting explosives, which he denied. Karnei, detained for nearly two…

New York, June 23, 2025— Eight Azerbaijani journalists have received prison sentences ranging from 7 ½ to 15 years, as part of an ongoing series of media trials likely to obliterate independent reporting in the Caucasus nation. In a closed-door trial on Monday, columnist and peace activist Bahruz Samadov was sentenced by a court in…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 23 other press freedom and journalist organizations on June 17 in condemning Georgia’s deepening restrictions on the media, including several repressive new laws, and calling on the international community to pressure the ruling Georgian Dream party to end its suppression of the independent press. The statement warned that independent…

The Committee to Protect Journalists and four other international media freedom organizations welcomed Thursday’s conviction of Robert Agius and Jamie Vella for supplying military-grade explosives to the hitmen who murdered Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia with a car bomb. The two men, part of a Maltese criminal gang, are due to be sentenced in…

Berlin, June 3, 2025—What journalists called a “witch hunt” atmosphere against government critics in Serbia one year ago has since escalated into a rise in attacks and threats against the press, following a deadly railway station collapse in November 2024 that triggered a widespread anti-corruption movement. Initial protests demanding accountability for the tragedy have turned…

A punishing spate of laws targeting foreign-funded media will dramatically curb Georgia’s independent voices and force many news outlets to shutter or shift their business operations, say Georgian journalists and press freedom advocates. Georgia’s populist ruling Georgian Dream party has pushed through its new Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)—called an “exact copy” of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act— granting…

New York, May 30, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kyrgyz authorities to end the legal persecution of eight former and current Kloop news website staffers arrested this week—including journalists Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Joomart Duulatov, who on Friday were remanded into pretrial detention until July 21 on charges of calling for mass unrest. “Following Kloop’s forced shutdown last…

May 27, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the European Commission to call on member states to provide both financing and political will to defend media freedom as it moves forward with its European Democracy Shield initiative. Public consultations for the proposed Shield, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in 2024, closed…

Berlin, May 22, 2025—Russian authorities must immediately cease their raids on the editorial office of Bars, a regional television broadcaster based in Ivanovo city, and the home of its editor-in-chief, Sergey Kustov, return all equipment and documents seized, and ensure that members of the media platform are not threatened with criminal charges over their work,…