New York, June 14, 2000 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today expressed concern that the arrest of Vladimir Gusinsky, the head an independent Russian media company that has been the target of state harassment for several years, was designed to intimidate journalists and stifle press coverage. Russian politicians and journalists have condemned the…
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in RUSSIA. New York, June 12, 2000 — Brice Fleutiaux, the French photographer kidnapped by Chechen rebels last October, was freed today by Russian special forces, according to international news reports. An Interior Ministry spokesman in Moscow reported Fleutiaux’s release Monday, but provided no further details.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the recent violent attack on Igor Domnikov, a reporter for the twice-weekly paper Novaya Gazeta in Moscow, and by your government’s recent announcement that it plans to interrogate reporters from both Novaya Gazeta and the Moscow daily Kommersant for publishing interviews with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.
New York, May 11, 2000 — Up to forty investigators and police commandos raided the Moscow offices of a media company that has often criticized Kremlin policies, according to local and international news reports. While Russian authorities claim the raid was connected to an investigation of so-called economic crimes, company representatives say they are convinced…
By Ann CooperAs a foreign correspondent covering the Soviet Union a decade ago, I was an eyewitness to a dramatic example of the press’ critical role in building democracy. Granted a bit of freedom by Mikhail Gorbachev’s mid-1980s glasnost policy, long-suppressed Soviet journalists set their own daring agenda: they probed forbidden history, investigated contemporary corruption,…
By Chrystyna Lapychak Wars in Yugoslavia and Chechnya dominated regional and international headlines in 1999. The conflicts raised the journalists’ death toll in the region and prompted crackdowns, as governments blocked access to war zones and engaged in propaganda campaigns.
[Click here for full list of documented cases] At its most fundamental level, the job of a journalist is to bear witness. In 1999, journalists in Sierra Leone witnessed rebels’ atrocities against civilians in the streets of Freetown. In the Balkans, journalists watched ethnic Albanians fleeing the deadly menace of Serbian police and paramilitaries. In…