Russia / Europe & Central Asia

New York, January 13, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities in the northern city of Murmansk to thoroughly investigate the death of Shafig Amrakhov, editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51. 

CPJ’s Joel Simon, Robert Mahoney, and Nina Ognianova pay tribute to journalists who died in 2008. The toll was highest in Iraq, but conflicts in South Asia and the Caucasus were deadly as well. Impunity in journalist murders in Russia, Philippines, and Mexico were top issues.

New York, December 23, 2008–Russian authorities should promptly investigate the attack on Zhanna Akbasheva, a correspondent for the Regnum news agency in the republic of Karachai-Cherkessia, in Russia’s North Caucasus, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, December 22, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is incensed by the violent attack on journalists covering a Sunday demonstration in Vladivostok, the regional capital of Primorsky Krai in Russia’s Far East. 

Making news today is yesterday’s release of our year-end analysis of the deadliest countries for journalists. The report found that 41 journalists were killed for their work in 2008, with Iraq named the most deadly for the sixth straight year. The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse all ran stories outlining the report’s findings yesterday. Today the story is receiving widespread coverage in both the…

New York, December 18, 2008—For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history.

About 10 reporters sit on one of two wooden benches in the back of Room No. 4 at the Moscow District Military Court in Moscow. They’re gathered for the trial of three defendants accused of playing a role in the October 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya. Only they won’t be attending…

December 2008News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

The release of Iraqi journalist Adel Hussein, who had been jailed in Iraqi Kurdistan, is making news today. The Associated Press has coverage of his pardon from President Masoud Barzani, as does Canada’s CBC News. Both articles cite our coverage of the case and quote CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney, who called on the authorities…

South Africa’s Mail & Guardian has more coverage of the Mikhail Beketov case today. Beketov, an editor of a Moscow-based newspaper, was brutally beaten and left for dead more than two weeks ago and remains in a coma. The Houston Chronicle also has a story on Beketov, as well as the dangers of reporting in…