Europe - Central Asia

A Ljubljana District Court has rejected Slovene daily Dnevnik's appeal against a temporary injunction that stops the paper reporting on an Italian businessman's alleged involvement in a corruption scandal, the International Press Institute (IPI) has reported. The injunction, which carries fines of up to €500,000 for failure to comply, relates to articles printed in Dnevnik on July 29 in which the...

An independent Russian journalist who wrote scathing articles after the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric dam disaster last month has been attacked in the city of Abakan, according to the Other Russia website. Mikhail Afanasyev, who works as the editor-in-chief of the Novy Fokus internet newspaper, related the news himself to the Kasparov.ru online newspaper on September 9. Details about the...

A journalist who broke the story of a Russian cargo ship apparently hijacked by pirates has fled Russia fearing for his life, the Guardian has reported. Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the online maritime bulletin Sovfracht, said he had left the country after receiving a menacing late-night phone call. The newspaper reported: [ Link] Voitenko said an unidentified man called him on the night of...

The editor of a prominent Catholic newspaper that demanded Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi answer questions about a sex scandal resigned Thursday, saying he and his family were hurt by an attack on his reputation from a Berlusconi family newspaper, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The resignation highlighted Berlusconi's souring ties with the church, which objects to the Italian...

The Supreme Court in Azerbaijan has upheld the decision of the Sabail District Court regarding the confiscation and destruction of the manuscript of a book that imprisoned Azadlig newspaper editor-in-chief Ganimat Zahid was writing, reported Zahid's spouse, Ayanda Mursaliyeva, who visited him in prison on August 31, the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) has reported. According to...

Ukrainian forensic experts have concluded that the skull that was found with the help of Gen Olexy Pukach, a former interior ministry intelligence officer who was arrested on July 21, is that of Heorhiy Gongadze, a journalist who was murdered in September 2000. This was announced at a news conference recently by Valentyna Telychenko, the lawyer of Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava Gongadze. “We take...

An Amsterdam court has ruled that the Associated Press (AP) violated the Dutch royal family’s privacy by distributing photos of them in an Argentina ski resort. The court on august 28 ordered the news agency to pay 1,000 euros for each further publication of the photos up to a ceiling of 50,000 euros. “We are shocked and disappointed by the court’s decision,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said....

The interior ministry of the Republic of Khakassia (in southwestern Siberia) has withdrawn the charges of spreading false rumours that were brought against Mikhail Afanasyev, the editor the Novy Focus news website, on August 20 in connection with his coverage of an explosion at a hydro-electric plant. “We welcome this decision but we nonetheless regard this case as indicative of the hostility that...

The Russian supreme court Thursday ordered that the case against three alleged accomplices to journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder should be returned to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation, overturning a lower court ruling on August 7 blocking this possibility. A representative of the prosecutor general said the investigation into the accomplices would be combined with the...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Samarkand Regional Court in central Uzbekistan to overturn on appeal a 12 and a half year jail sentence given to independent journalist Dilmurod Saiid. His appeal is scheduled for review September 8. On July 30, the Tailak District Court in Samarkand sentenced Saiid on charges of extortion and forgery, regional news website Ferghana...