Europe - Central Asia

The Kazakh supreme court has upheld the two-year ban that a court in the southern city of Taraz imposed on the weekly Alma Ata Info on August 8 at the same time as it sentenced its editor, Ramazan Esergepov, to three years in prison, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This disgraceful sentence should have been quashed because of all the irregularities during the trial,” Paris-based RSF...

A three-year jail sentence has been passed by a court in the southern city of Taraz passed on Ramazan Esergepov, the owner and editor of the Kazakh weekly Alma Ata Info, on charges of gathering and divulging classified documents under articles 172 and 339 of the Kazakh criminal code, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The trial, which ended on August 8 with Esergepov also being banned...

The European Newspaper Publishers Association and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers have called on European governments to help ensure that Lithuania respects freedom of expression and freedom of the press following approval of a law that makes it a crime to ridicule someone. The law would also bar information that promotes homosexual lifestyles, or information that promotes...

Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Maxima, have sought a court injunction against the Associated Press to force it to stop distributing recent photos of them and their five-year-old daughter, Princess Catharina-Amalia, at an Argentine ski resort. “We fully support the Associated Press’s freedom to cover and photograph any subject it considers newsworthy,” Reporters Sans...

A Moscow military court has decided to press on with the retrial of three alleged accomplices in Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, rejecting a petition by the Politkovskaya family for it to be postponed while further investigations were carried out. Presiding judge Nikolai Tkachuk on Friday denied the request although it was supported both defence lawyers and prosecutors. “We are...

A BBC journalist who went undercover to expose failings in care for the elderly has been arrested. Arifa Farooq was detained on Wednesday and held in a police cell in the wake of a Panorama investigation into care providers in South Lanarkshire, a BBC report said. Some details: [ Link] It is believed her arrest is related to an alleged failure to provide accurate personal details to the employer...

Two physical attacks on journalists in the past month and two ongoing trials have again highlighted the aversion that local authorities in Turkey display towards reporters who try to cover local government corruption. “Local officials in Turkey do not hesitate to beat up journalists who criticise them,” Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) said in a statement. “These frequent beatings are unacceptable...

Uzbek authorities should immediately free the independent journalist Dilmurod Saidov, sentenced Thursday last to 12 1/2 years in prison following a flawed trial brought on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch has said. The trial was riddled with procedural violations, and several witnesses ultimately withdrew their testimony, saying they had given false evidence, rendering his...

The Guardian Media Group is reported to be considering options for the future of its Sunday newspaper, the Observer, as part of a strategic company review. The company – parent of Guardian News & Media, which publishes the Observer, Guardian and guardian.co.uk – is said not to have ruled out closing the Sunday title. Some details from the Guardian itself: [ Link] GMG has reportedly floated the...

Three suspects in the murder of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya went on trial for a second time in Moscow Wednesday, according to news reports. No one has been sentenced for the October 2006 killing of Politkovskaya, who published scathing exposes of official corruption and rights abuses. The three alleged accomplices, the only people so far charged in connection with the murder...