Europe - Central Asia

Police in the western city of Kaliningrad should drop trumped-up bribery charges against Arseny Makhlov, the founder of the independent weekly Dvornik, and allow him to work without fear of harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Makhlov was arrested and charged on Monday after Dvornik published articles on corruption in the building industry that implicated local...

Pierre Haski, the editor of the French news website Rue89, and one of his reporters, Augustin Scalbert, have been summoned for questioning by an anti-crime unit, the BRDP, in connection with a video of President Nicolas Sarkozy talking informally to TV studio staff before an interview without realising he was being recorded, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We condemn this escalation...

Russian authorities should thoroughly investigate the March 12 beating of Maksim Zolotarev, an editor at the independent newspaper Molva Yuzhnoye Podmoskovye in the town of Serpukhov, Moscow Region, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Zolotarev told Radio Svoboda—the Russian Service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—that three unidentified men in hooded jackets...

Vadim Rogozhin, managing director of the independent media holding company Vzglyad in the southern city of Saratov, was hospitalised in serious condition on March 10 after surviving a brutal attack last week, his company said in an official statement, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Two unidentified assailants attacked Rogozhin, 38, as he was leaving an elevator at his...

Serbian authorities must step up their investigation into the killing of journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija, the International Press Institute and its affiliate, the South East Europe Media Organisation, said Wednesday, one month before the 10th anniversary of his death. Slavko Ćuruvija was shot dead by two masked men in front of his home in the centre of Belgrade on April 11, 1999, Serbian...

The Ankara bureau chief of Cumhuriyet Daily, Mustafa Balbay, and online Toplumsal Haber columnist, Nerima Aydin, were taken under custody for a second time in relation to the Ergenekon case, involving accusations of overthrowing the government. Both were sent to Metris prison, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. Turkey's Society of Journalists (TGC), Contemporary Journalists'...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Belarusian authorities to renew work credentials for Andrzej Poczobut, a local correspondent for Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and to investigate recent harassment of him and his family in the western city of Hrodno. Poczobut's credentials were pulled off after he reported on the policies of President Aleksandr Lukashenko and the...

Faramaz Novruzoglu (Allahverdiyev), editor and head consultant for Nota newspaper, has received anonymous death threats. The IRFS Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS) informed by Novruzoglu that unknown individuals called him and threatened him and his family members. Novruzoglu believes that these calls are related to his recent series of articles about the Antiterrorism Centre of the...

Oleg Salnikov, author of the article "Ordinary Fascism Attempts to Take Root on These Isles" published by the newspaper Gubernskiye Vedomosti, has been receiving death threats, according to the Glasnost Defence Foundation (GDF) . The story about an extremist organisation led by two former law enforcement officers was also posted on the website of the Sakhalin-Kurily news agency, triggering a...

A TV production company in a Parisian suburb was raided on March 2 in connection with a documentary about Martinique in which a member of the French Caribbean island’s white business elite, Alain Huyghues-Despointes, made racist comments, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) The comments sparked a controversy after the Tac Presse documentary, called “The Last Masters of Martinique” and...