Europe - Central Asia

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned a court decision to continue investigating the charge of “disseminating information likely to upset the population” under article 322/1 of the criminal code that was brought against journalist Zeljko Peratovic in January at the behest at interior minister Tomislav Karamarko. It carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison as well as a possible fine...

Kyrgyz authorities have been urged to detain, charge, and prosecute three men who attacked Yrysbek Omurzakov, editor of the independent newspaper Tribuna, in the capital, Bishkek, last week. On May 7, at around 5 p.m., two sedans blocked Omurzakov's marked press vehicle at an intersection near his office, the editor told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Omurzakov said he...

The Northern Ireland police are trying to obtain a court order in Belfast that would force Suzanne Breen, the Belfast editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune newspaper, to hand over all her source material about the Real IRA, an Irish Republican Army splinter group. “Journalists are neither police auxiliaries nor criminals,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “The confidentiality...

Authorities in Rostov-on-Don must launch a criminal investigation into a possible attack on the editor-in-chief of an independent newspaper who was found unconscious with a head wound in the early morning of April 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, editor of Korruptsiya i Prestupnost (Corruption and Crime), was found at the foot of a staircase in...

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Armenian authorities to apprehend three assailants who attacked Argishti Kivirian, editor of the independent news website Armenia Today. The unidentified men beat Kivirian early Thursday morning, leaving him hospitalised in serious condition, Zhanna Alexanian, president of the Yerevan-based organization Journalists for Human Rights, told CPJ. "We...

Moldovan authorities have been arresting journalists and even using violence against them amid angry protests and rioting about the results of last weekend’s parliamentary elections, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Both Moldovan and Romanian journalists have been affected. “We appeal to the authorities to act with care and restraint,” RSF said. “They have a duty to ensure...

Following Thursday's release of independent journalists Sakit Zakhidov and Asif Marzili in Azerbaijan, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Azerbaijani authorities to free the remaining journalists serving jail terms on trumped-up criminal charges. Zakhidov, a prominent satirist and commentator for the pro-opposition daily Azadlyg in Baku, was released early Thuesady morning under...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Moldovan authorities to allow Romanian journalists to enter Moldova and report on anti-communist rallies that have swept Moldova's capital, Chisinau, since Monday. Approximately 10,000 protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to protest Sunday's parliamentary election, which was won by President Vladimir Voronin's Communist Party. Nineteen...

A district court in Baku has sentenced Asif Marzili, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly Tezadlar, to one year in prison on charges of defaming managers and professors of Azerbaijan International University, the Azeri Press Agency reported. Ruling on Tuesday, the court also handed down a six-month suspended corrective labor sentence to Tezadlar freelancer Zumrud Mammedova in the same case...

Police in the Moscow suburb of Khimki must conduct a thorough investigation into the sudden death of newspaper designer Sergei Protazanov, the circumstances of which are in dispute, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Anatoly Yurov, chief editor of the pro-opposition Grazhdanskoye Soglasiye, told CPJ that he spoke with his employee by telephone on Monday. Protazanov, 40, said an...