MAY 21, 2005 Posted: July 15, 2005 Pavel Makeev, Puls KILLED—UNCONFIRMED The body of the 21-year-old cameraman was found alongside a road on the outskirts of the Rostov Region town shortly after he arrived to film illegal drag-race competitions. Authorities classified the death as a traffic accident, but colleagues believed he was killed purposely to…
New York, May 12, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention and harassment this week of a Latvian television crew by local police and federal agents in Pytalovo, a district on the Latvia-Russia border. Reporter Ivo Kirsblats, cameraman Maris Jurgensons, and driver Eriks Pakalns of the Riga-based Latvian public television LTV were detained for…
New York, April 25, 2005—Police in the Russian city of Volokolamsk detained Irina Petrushova, editor of the Kazakh opposition weekly Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye, for two days at the request of Kazakh authorities, she told the Committee to Protect Journalists shortly after her release today. Petrushova, a 2002 winner of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, said…
APRIL 23, 2005 Posted: May 3, 2005 Irina Petrushova, Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye HARASSED, IMPRISONED Police in the Russian city of Volokolamsk detained Petrushova, editor of the Kazakh opposition weekly Respublika Delovoye Obozreniye, for two days at the request of Kazakh authorities, the journalist told CPJ.
New York, March 24, 2005—The Russian Foreign Ministry has strongly criticized Swedish authorities and media for independent news reporting on the conflict in Chechnya, claiming the information was fomenting violence, according to local and international press reports. The Russian embassy in Stockholm criticized the independent Swedish news agency TT on Wednesday for publishing an interview…
New York, March 24, 2005—An appeals court yesterday reduced the massive damages levied against the independent Moscow daily Kommersant in what a newspaper lawyer called a “tactical victory” in its ongoing legal battle over its reporting on last summer’s banking crisis. Moscow’s Federal Arbitration Court upheld the finding of liability but reduced the damages to…
New York, March 16, 2005—Russian authorities in Chechnya and the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod are escalating their campaign of harassment and intimidation against Pravo-Zashchita (Rights Defense), a monthly newspaper that covers human rights abuses in Chechnya, according to local press reports. The newspaper is published by the nongovernmental organization Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS)…