Europe - Central Asia

Officials from the Odessa Public Utility Service and mayor’s office have been physically obstructing the work of several Ukranian television and radio stations on the grounds of alleged building renovation, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. On Monday, city officials first barred reporters from entering their offices in the Odessa...

Prison sentences were awarded Wednesday to two Azerbaijani video bloggers detained in July on fabricated charges of “hooliganism” and “inflicting minor bodily harm,” the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Judge Araz Huseynov with the Sabail District Court in Baku handed Emin Milli, 30, who runs an online video blog known as ANTV, a two and a half year jail term...

Albanian newspaper editor Mero Baze was beaten unconscious by a pro-government businessman and two bodyguards three days ago, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister’s office in Tirana Wednesday to protest against the frequency of attempts to intimidate journalists in Albania. Baze, who edits the leading newspaper Tema and...

There has been an increase in attempts to intimidate Kyrgyzstan’s independent media after Kubanychbek Joldoshev, a newspaper reporter based in the southern city of Osh, became the seventh journalist to be physically attacked since the start of the year. He was badly beaten after his taxi was stopped by police on November 2, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. A reporter for the municipal...

Assailants badly beat Mero Baze, chief editor of the independent Albanian daily Tema and host of the prime-time television show “Faktor Plus,” at a bar in the capital, Tirana, on Monday, according to news reports. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attack and called on authorities to bring the assailants to justice. Baze lost consciousness after the attack and...

Police in Kyrgyzstan should investigate work-related motives in a weekend assault that left Kubanychbek Zholdoshev, a reporter with the government weekly Osh Shamy, with a concussion and broken ribs, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Tuesday. Three assailants beat Zholdoshev as he was returning home from dinner in the southern city of Osh on Sunday night, the...

In the latest example of official paranoia and harassment of the press, Tashkent-based freelance journalists Vasiliy Markov and Sid Yanyshev were interrogated by police and members of the secret services about their work for more than 10 hours during a recent visit to the eastern border region near the city of Andijan, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The two journalists had gone to...

Russian freelance journalist Alexandr Podrabinek has gradually re-emerged in recent days after being forced into hiding by a hate campaign orchestrated by “patriotic” youth groups such as Nashi (Ours) but he is now the target of several lawsuits and Nashi is even suing foreign newspapers over their coverage of the case, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This affair has progressed from...

A court in the southern city of Taraz has upheld independent newspaper owner and editor Ramazan Esergepov’s three-year jail term and two-year publishing ban, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sentence was confirmed at a secret hearing on October 22 which, like his original trial, was marked by irregularities. Except for the first 15 minutes, the appeal hearing was conducted behind...

The European Court of Human Rights Friday rejected by six votes to one Russian journalist Grigory Pasko’s complaint accusing his government of violating his freedom of expression under articles 7 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights by sentencing him to four years in prison on a spying charge, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We share Pasko’s disappointment as we have...