The European Union is struggling to balance its ideals as a global leader in press freedom with its member states’ criminal defamation and blasphemy laws and counterterrorism measures. Despite an outward commitment to press freedom, in many cases the EU lacks a robust mechanism to hold member states accountable when they renege on their commitments.…
StoryMap: Press freedom in EU candidate countries Press freedom is a key factor for countries working toward EU membership. Currently five countries—Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey— and two potential candidates—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo— are applying to become member states. This StoryMap explores the challenges journalists in those countries have faced in the past five years….
A new document on freedom of expression and opinion, adopted May 12 by the 28 foreign ministers of the European Union, presses nearly all the right buttons. Drawing its inspiration from international human rights norms as well as from the EU’s treaties and its charter of fundamental rights, the document reaffirms the role of freedom…
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS: 2009 • Main Index EUROPE and CENTRAL ASIA Regional Analysis: • Why a killing in Chechnya is an international issue Country Summaries • Armenia • Azerbaijan • Belarus • Croatia • Georgia • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Russia • Ukraine • Uzbekistan• Other developments ALBANIA The independent daily Tema was abruptly…
BULGARIA | CROATIA | FRANCE | KOSOVO | ROMANIA | SLOVAKIA | TAJIKISTAN | UNITED KINGDOM | UKRAINE BULGARIA • Two unidentified gunmen killed Georgi Stoev, a popular writer and author of a series of books on the origins and rise of Bulgaria’s criminal underworld. Stoev, 35, was walking on a busy street near the…
December 11 Jonathan C. Randal, The Washington Post The U.N. International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY) ruled to limit compelled testimony from war correspondents. The decision, announced at the tribunal’s Appeals Chamber, came in response to the appeal by former Washington Post reporter Jonathan C. Randal, who had been…
Emboldened by the growing number of U.S. troops in the country, President Askar Akayev has used the threat of international terrorism as an excuse to curb political dissent and suppress the independent and opposition media in Kyrgyzstan. Compliant courts often issue exorbitant damage awards in politically motivated libel suits, driving even the country’s most prominent…
Slovaks voted for a moderate, center-right coalition of reformist parties in September parliamentary elections, continuing the country’s course toward NATO and European Union membership. However, during 2002, the government’s limited tolerance of criticism, sluggish reform of the state media, and tentative progress toward decriminalizing libel laws reflected a lack of political will in developing a…
Press freedom is generally respected in the United Kingdom, but CPJ was alarmed by a legal case in which Interbrew, a Belgium-based brewing group, and the British Financial Services Authority (FSA), a banking and investment watchdog agency, demanded that several U.K. media outlets turn over documents that had been leaked to them. The case threatened…