Russia / Europe & Central Asia

With his sights set firmly on integration with Russia, President Alexander Lukashenko has intensified his efforts to stifle the independent and opposition media in Belarus. In the days surrounding the April 2 signing in Moscow of the second treaty on integration with Russia in two years, Lukashenko reached new heights, even by his own standards,…

The publication in March of CPJ’s Attacks on the Press in 1996 was the culmination of months of intense preparation by CPJ staff, investigating and verifying more than 1,000 documented cases of violations of press freedom worldwide. The 376-page volume, edited by Publications Director Alice Chasan, is the longest and most comprehensive of CPJ’s annual…

Internet Edition No. 53

Faced with a mounting toll of Russian journalists’ abductions, the new Chechen government has heavily restricted reporters’ movements. The May kidnapping of independent Russian NTV’s prominent war reporter Yelena Masyuk and two crew members was the latest in a string of kidnappings, possibly related to the intention of some Chechen factions to derail the 1996…

On April 3, 1981, three New York journalists filed incorporating papers for a new organization called The Committee to Protect Journalists, dedicated to the defense “of the human and professional rights of journalists around the world.”

Africa For the third consecutive year, Ethiopia held more journalists in jail–31 at year’s end–than any other country in Africa. Most were detained without charges.