Europe - Central Asia

An Istanbul criminal court has ordered the closure, for one month, of Günlük newspaper – which is known for raising issues related to Turkey’s Kurdish minority - over an article considered by the court to constitute propaganda for a terrorist organisation. The article was published earlier this month. The verdict, handed down on August 22, did not specify why the article was deemed to be of a...

Georgian authorities on Wednesday released journalist Shalva Ramishvili from prison, after he served a full four-year term for alleged blackmail, according to the International Press Institute (IPI). Ramishvili, a former reporter for - and part owner of - TV broadcaster ‘202’, has always protested his innocence, claiming his conviction was punishment for his criticism of Georgian President Mikhail...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have urged Serbian lawmakers to throw out a package of controversial draft amendments to the Public Information Act proposed by the government of Serbia. In a letter to the President of Serbia, Boris Tadić, IFJ President Jim Boumelha urged him to withdraw the amendments. He wrote: "We are concerned...

The car of an investigative journalist, Enrico Porsia, was bombed in the early hours of Wednesday outside the house in Conca, near the southern Corsican town of Porto-Vecchio, where he is staying while on vacation, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The explosion caused considerable damage to the car but no injuries. An Italian national who was once a member of the Red Brigades, Porsia...

The Taraz Regional Court in southern Kazakhstan sentenced to jail Ramazan Yesergepov, editor of Almaty-based weekly Alma-Ata Info, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On August 8, the court sentenced Yesergepov to three years in prison on a criminal charge of "collecting information that contains state secrets," the local press said. Rozlana Taukina, head of the Almaty-based...

Prosecutors in Abakan, the capital of the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, have filed defamation charges against online editor Mikhail Afanasyev, over a blog entry about Monday's explosion at Russia's largest hydroelectric plant that killed dozens of workers, according to news reports. Prosecutors opened a criminal probe against Afanasyev on Wednesday, after he and his two colleagues at...

A Ljubljana district court on August 6 banned the daily Dnevnik from mentioning Italian businessman Pierpaolo Cerani as controversial or involved in corruption scandals, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Dnevnik can report about him only in positive way, without mentioning his involvement in former scandals until there has been an outcome to the libel suit he has brought against the...

Russia's Orthodox Church has cursed and excommunicated a journalist for "satanic lies" in accusing the abbess of a monastery of intimidating locals into selling their homes for "peanuts." Says a Reuters report: [ Link] The Russian Orthodox Church used excommunication and the anathema ecclesiastical curse as powerful weapons against its enemies under the tsars, but rarely imposes the sanctions...

The editor of a now-defunct Azerbaijani newspaper, in state custody since February 2007, has died in a Baku prison hospital, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. According to Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service spokesman Mekhman Sadygov, Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, appeared Tuesday to have suffered a stroke. Results from an...

A journalist known for his critical commentary has been killed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, 32, was shot in his car at around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday on the outskirts of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, the independent Caucasus news website Kavkazsky Uzel reported. The Dagestan Investigative Committee, the region's investigative office, has opened a...