Russia / Europe & Central Asia

  
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview at a May 15, 2018, ceremony opening a bridge that will connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine authorities accused the director of Russian state news agency RIA Novosti's Kiev office of propaganda supporting the annexing of Crimea. (Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters)

Ukraine authorities search Russian news agency, detain director

New York, May 15, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over the Ukraine Security Service’s (SBU) search of the Kiev office of the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti and detention of the office director, Kirill Vyshynsky.

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A poster of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is carried at a protest against government corruption revealed by the Daphne Project, in Valletta, Malta, on April 29. Reporting on corruption can be a dangerous assignment. (Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi)

Make solving journalist murders a priority, CPJ tells US Helsinki Commission

“Being a reporter in much of the world is dangerous work. Being an investigative reporter can be deadly,” CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney told the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission, at a briefing in Washington, D.C. today.

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Protesters at an opposition rally in Moscow on April 30 demand internet freedom in Russia amid a crackdown on the app, Telegram. (AFP/Alexander Nemenov)

CPJ joins call for Russia to revoke order banning Telegram

A coalition of 26 international human rights, media and internet freedom organizations, including CPJ, today called on Russian authorities to revoke a court order that blocks access to the Telegram messaging app.

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The center of Yekaterinburg, Russia in August 2017. Unknown assailants on April 12, 2018 attacked Dmitry Polyanin, editor-in-chief of the regional pro-government newspaper Oblastnaya Gazeta, according to reports. (Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

Local editor beaten in Yekaterinburg, Russia

Unknown assailants on April 12, 2018 attacked Dmitry Polyanin, editor-in-chief of the regional pro-government newspaper Oblastnaya Gazeta, which had recently published articles about irregularities in the local housing market and related violence, according to the paper and media reports.

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A view of the center of Yekaterinburg from the stands of the new the World Cup stadium in March 2018. Russian investigative journalist Maksim Borodin died after falling on April 12, 2018, from the balcony of his fifth-floor apartment, according to reports. (AP/Anton Basanaev)

CPJ calls for investigation into death of Russian journalist Maksim Borodin

New York, April 16, 2018–Russian authorities must conduct a thorough investigation into the death of journalist Maksim Borodin and consider the possibility that he was killed in retribution for his reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A screen shot of the new label on RT's YouTube channel. (CPJ)

YouTube labels on public broadcasters draw ire in US, Russia

With claims to more than one billion users consuming content in 76 languages, Google’s YouTube has become a core part of most media outlets’ dissemination strategy. And although there are 88 localized versions of the service, YouTube.com remains the largest and most influential platform for reaching a global audience. Which is why, when the site…

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A police officer walks along the Red Square in Moscow, Russia in November 2017. Russia's Federal Security Service searched journalist Pavel Nikulin's Moscow apartment in relation to his article on a Russian man who said he fought with Islamic State militants in Syria. (Reuters/Grigory Dukor)

Russian journalist questioned, apartment searched, equipment seized

Kiev, February 1, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Russian authorities today to return all confiscated property to independent journalist Pavel Nikulin, and stop harassing him in retaliation for his reporting. The Federal Security Service (FSB) yesterday morning raided Nikulin’s Moscow apartment, and brought the journalist to agency headquarters where he was questioned for…

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People enjoy a sunny day just outside the Fisht stadium, at the sea front in Sochi, Russia in June 2017. A Sochi court charged local blogger Aleksandr Valov with extorting money from the city's federal parliamentary deputy. (Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)

Russian authorities arrest Sochi blogger on extortion charges

New York, January 26, 2018–Russian authorities should immediately drop the charges against journalist Aleksandr Valov and release him from custody, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Authorities on January 19 detained Valov, the editor-in-chief and founder of a local news site BlogSochi, and, two days later, charged him with extortion, according to media reports.

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Cars drive in front of the building housing Russia's State Duma. The lower house voted in January to approve a bill that will require some journalists to register as foreign agents. (AFP/Mladen Antonov)

Russia votes on bill to require journalists to register as foreign agents

Kiev, January 16, 2018–Russia’s State Duma should drop a bill that would require some bloggers and journalists to register as foreign agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Duma on January 12 voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

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Press freedom oppressors, clockwise from left: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, and Donald Trump of the U.S. (Reuters/AFP/AFP/AP)

In response to Trump’s fake news awards, CPJ announces Press Oppressors awards

Amid the public discourse of fake news and President Trump’s announcement via Twitter about his planned “fake news” awards ceremony, CPJ is recognizing world leaders who have gone out of their way to attack the press and undermine the norms that support freedom of the media. From an unparalleled fear of their critics and the…

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