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: Turkey
TURKEY A wave of criminal prosecutions against the press reignited doubts about Turkey’s commitment to Western-style democracy and a free press just one year after the nation began formal talks for European Union membership. Journalists and writers found themselves the repeated targets of criminal lawsuits initiated under vaguely worded, restrictive statutes that remained on the…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Uzbekistan
UZBEKISTAN President Islam Karimov continued his crackdown on the independent press, political opponents, and civil-society groups. As his foreign policy shifted away from the West, Karimov’s regime expelled dozens of foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations, including those supporting local media. The few remaining independent journalists were forced to choose whether to sever ties to foreign-funded media or…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Europe and Central Asia Snapshots
Armenia Germany/Poland Poland Bosnia Italy Portugal Bulgaria Lithuania Romania Croatia Macedonia Serbia Cyprus Moldova Switzerland Denmark Netherlands ARMENIA • On May 25, authorities denied independent television station A1+ a broadcasting license for the 12th time. According to press reports, the National Commission on Television and Radio justified the rejection by saying that competitors submitted stronger…
Turkish-Armenian editor murdered in Istanbul
New York, January 19, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder today of a prominent Turkish-Armenian editor outside his newspaper’s offices in Istanbul. Hrant Dink, 52, managing editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot three times in the neck, according to the Turkish television channel NTV.
CPJ alarmed by censorship during Bangladesh political crisis
New York, January 11, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by orders from the Bangladeshi Information Ministry that private broadcast outlets suspend news programs and print outlets halt critical news coverage during a state of emergency announced this evening. “It’s essential that at this very sensitive moment Bangladeshi citizens have unfettered access to information,”…
Appeals court upholds jail term for Turkish-Armenian journalist
New York, July 12, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ruling yesterday by Turkey’s High Court of Appeals to uphold the six-month suspended prison sentence of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Dink, managing editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, had appealed a conviction last October under Article 301 of the penal code, which…
Radio station closed, journalists harassed
New York, June 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the closure of a radio station in Somalia, and the brief detention by militiamen of two of its journalists, over a report of an alleged Ethiopian incursion. Somalia’s weakened transitional government, which is based in Baidoa, 155 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of the…
Journalist acquitted but media prosecutions continue
New York, June 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the acquittal of a Turkish newspaper columnist by an Istanbul court on Thursday, but remains deeply concerned by the ongoing criminal prosecution of journalists in Turkey. Murat Belge of the daily Radikal was acquitted on charges of attempting to influence the outcome of judicial proceedings…