Caucasus

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JAPANESE JOURNALIST MISSING IN CAUCASUS

New York, September 26, 2001— Japanese free-lance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka has now been missing since late July, when he reportedly left Georgia for Chechnya to interview Chechen rebels. Tsuneoka, 32, last communicated with his family via e-mail at the end of July after arriving in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, the Japan Economic Newswire reported. He wrote…

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Attacks on the Press 2000: Azerbaijan

PRESIDENT HEIDAR ALIYEV AND OTHER AZERBAIJANI OFFICIALS repeatedly proclaimed their support for freedoms of association and expression, but the November parliamentary elections highlighted the regime’s authoritarianism. The government banned opposition rallies, harassed opposition leaders, and temporarily suspended several opposition parties from the contest. International observers found multiple problems with the election itself, which was nevertheless…

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Attacks on the Press 2000: Russia

THE ASCENDANCY OF PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN brought an alarming assault on press freedom in Russia last year. Under the new president, the Kremlin imposed censorship in Chechnya, orchestrated legal cases against powerful media barons, and granted sweeping powers of surveillance to the security services (see special report).

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Attacks on the Press 1999: Russia

“We have to protect the state from the media,” said Mikhail Lesin, the head of Russia’s new Ministry for the Press, Radio and Television Broadcasting, and Media Affairs, shortly after taking office in July. Coming in advance of the country’s legislative and presidential elections, it was a stunning statement of Kremlin intent. Lesin’s demonization of…

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Russia/Chechnya: Two journalists killed, two others missing

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about a series of recent attacks on journalists covering the conflict in Chechnya. Two Chechen cameramen have been killed in recent weeks, while a Russian reporter and a French photojournalist have disappeared.

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Correspondent killed in Grozny rocket attack

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the death of Supian Ependiyev, a veteran correspondent for the independent Chechnya weekly Groznenskiy Rabochiy, in a recent rocket attack on the Chechen capital, Grozny

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Dagestan: Journalists face censorship, abduction

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by official Russian, Dagestani, and Chechen efforts to restrict media coverage of the conflict in Dagestan. On August 17, the new Russian Ministry for the Press, Television and Radio Broadcasting, and Media Affairs issued a formal warning to Russia’s national television networks barring them from broadcasting interviews with any of the Islamist rebel leaders now waging a separatist war against Russia in the Caucasus region of Dagestan. The warning was delivered to ORT Russian Public TV, the All Russia State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company, Russian TV, NTV, and TV-6.

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CHECHEN GOVERNMENT IMPOSES NEW RESTRICTIONS ON JOURNALISTS CITES SAFETY INTERESTS AS KIDNAPPINGS MOUNT

March 31,1999 — Kidnappings of Russian journalists in Russia’s secessionist republic of Chechnya have become all too common: as of April 1997, CPJ documented at least 13 journalists missing in Chechnya, the largest total in the world. Most of those abducted this year are believed to be alive, although four who disappeared in 1995 are…

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