Europe - Central Asia

A court order issued on Monday banned all Kazakh media and printing houses from publishing “any information that discredits the honor and dignity” of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, a high-ranking energy executive, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. According to the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Kazakh service, the Medeu District Court in...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on judges in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, to drop their defamation lawsuits against three popular independent weeklies for damage amounts that would bankrupt them. Claiming that Ozodagon, Farazh, and Asia-Plus published biased and defamatory articles about them in late January, judges Nur Nurov and Ulughbek Mamadshoyev of Tajikistan’s...

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday signed a decree establishing extensive control over Internet access and online content. The decree is due to take effect on July 1. Decree No 6 concerning “national Internet network improvement measures” requires that all online access devices such as computers and mobile phones be identified and registered with Internet service providers. This will...

Former Prime Minister Janez Jansa and the Slovenian state have brought defamation charges against Finnish journalist Magnus Berglund in connection the bribery allegations he made during a programme broadcast on Finnish TV station YLE on September 1, 2008. Berglund accused Jansa, other senior officials and high ranking military officers of collecting around 20 million euros in illegal commissions...

An appeal court in Tajikistan has upheld an astronomical damages award against a news weekly and the announcement of new lawsuits against a total of four leading newspapers, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The damages award of 300,000 somoni (49,000 euros) against the weekly Paykon (“Arrowhead”) was confirmed on January 26 by a Dushanbe court. The newspaper had been ordered to pay...

A Moscow court has ruled against freelance journalist and former Soviet dissident Alexandre Podrabinek in a lawsuit by Second World War veteran Viktor Semenov, who claimed he was offended by an online article last September criticising government attempts to paint a rosy picture of the Soviet era. In its ruling, issued on January 27, the court ordered Podrabinek to pay Semenov 1,000 roubles (23...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Uzbek authorities to immediately drop all charges against Umida Akhmedova, a prominent photojournalist and documentary filmmaker who covers gender, ethnic, and cultural issues, and allow her to continue to do her work without fear of reprisal. On January 13, investigators with the city police department in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent...

More than 1,000 people took part in Tuesday's rally in Moscow in homage to journalist Anastasia Baburova and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov on the first anniversary of their murder. Young anti-fascist activists, representatives of human rights NGOs and above all ordinary citizens made up the unusually large crowd that defied freezing temperatures and marched with photos of Baburova and...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday called on Uzbek authorities to immediately cease their campaign of intimidation against the handful of independent journalists remaining in the Central Asian country. From January 7-9, at least six journalists were called in for “an informal talk” at the Tashkent prosecutor’s office, and at least four of them were interrogated about their work...

Three press freedom activists have been prosecuted for organising a “flash mob” in support of imprisoned journalists in Kazakhstan capital Almaty on January 6. The three activists were charged with holding an illegal demonstration when they appeared before an Almaty court on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The prosecution of Raushan Esergepova, Rozlana Taukina and...