Attacks on the Press 2006: Russia
RUSSIA As Russia assumed a world leadership role, chairing the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations and the Council of Europe’s powerful committee of ministers, the Kremlin cracked down on dissent and shrugged off astounding attacks on critics and journalists. In a grim year for the press, parliament passed a measure to hush media criticism…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Countries That Have Jailed Journalists
ALGERIA: 2 Djamel Eddine Fahassi, Alger Chaîne III IMPRISONED: May 6, 1995 Fahassi, a reporter for the state-run radio station Alger Chaîne III and a contributor to several Algerian newspapers, including the now-banned weekly of the Islamic Salvation Front, Al-Forqane, was abducted near his home in the al-Harrache suburb of the capital, Algiers, by four…
Putin pledges to protect journalists
New York, February 1, 2007—Responding to an international outcry over the murder of Russia’s top investigative reporter, President Vladimir Putin vowed today to protect the press, a pledge welcomed by the Committee to Protect Journalists. For the first time Putin also acknowledged the importance of the work of Anna Politkovskaya, whose murder in October put…
Ingushetia police detain, beat, deport journalists
New York, January 29, 2008—Police in the southern Russian Republic of Ingushetia detained, beat, and deported journalists and human rights activists who tried to cover an opposition rally in the regional capital on Saturday, according to CPJ sources and local news reports. Authorities mounted a massive crackdown against the roughly 200 protesters in Nazran. Riot…
Russian daily says Politkovskaya reports spur Chechnya investigation
New York, January 25, 2007—The Chechnya prosecutor’s office is investigating officers of the southern republic’s Interior Ministry in connection with articles by the slain investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, the Moscow business daily Kommersant reported Wednesday. The daily quoted Chechnya prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov as saying that Politkovskaya’s accounts of alleged torture last spring prompted his office…
Chechnya police may be behind Politkovskaya murder, Russian officials tell CPJ
Moscow, January 23, 2007—Russia’s prosecutor general has opened a criminal investigation into several police officials in Chechnya who may have killed reporter Anna Politkovskaya because she was about to publish an article alleging their involvement in torture. The information was disclosed to a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists in a meeting on Monday…
Journalist severely beaten in the Russian far east
New York, January 22, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brutal assault on Tamara Golovanova, a reporter for the newspaper Vesti in the far eastern city of Partizansk, who was beaten on Friday while covering a story at a municipal office. The attack occurred in mid-afternoon, when Golovanova was interviewing people at the city…