Europe - Central Asia

The Russian prosecutor-general’s office has filed an appeal before the supreme court against the acquittal of three men who were accused in connection with the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya. A jury found the three men not guilty on February 19 at the end of a trial before a Moscow military court. “We point out that the Politkovskaya murder has not been solved,” Reporters...

The Almaty appeal court has been accused by press freedom groups of seeking to ruin an independent newspaper by imposing a fine that it and its journalists would find impossible to pay. A case for defamation was brought by parliament deputy, Ramin Madinov, against the editor of the weekly newspaper Tasjargan, Bakyttoul Makimbai and a journalist, Almas Koucherbayev after it carried an article on...

An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, Tuesday, according to the regional news site Ferghana. Syrgak Abdyldayev, a political reporter and commentator with the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, was attacked at around 7 p.m., Ferghana reported. Abdyldayev, 47, is currently hospitalised with 12 stab wounds and a broken arm, Reporter...

An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, on March 3, according to the regional news site Ferghana. Syrgak Abdyldayev, a political reporter and commentator with the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, was attacked at around 7 p.m., Ferghana reported. Abdyldayev, 47, is currently hospitalised with 12 stab wounds and a broken arm, Reporter...

A case brought against Radio Dunya for playing the Kurdish folk song "Mihemedo" in 2007 has ended in acquittal, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported quoting broadcasting editor Mehmet Arslan. However, another case against the station is still in court. Radio Dunya broadcasts in the province of Adana, in southern Turkey. On February 23, the radio station's lawyer, Tugay Bek, learnt...

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) have condemned the threats and attack against Vladimir Vjestic, the editor-in-chief of Radio BUS in Kovin. Radio BUS announced on Monday that its editor-in-chief, Vladimir Vjestic, was threatened on Saturday, February 21, by Predrag Milovanovic, a private entrepreneur from Kovin...

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) has condemned pressures exerted on the daily newspaper Borba after publication of an article about the decision made by the Government of Serbia to pay one million dollars to ensure that the trial of Miladin Kovacevic, accused of inflicting injuries on American student Brian Steinhauer, will be held in Serbia instead of in the US. The police...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the s decision by judge Tatsiana Miranyuk of a district court in the western city of Brest to order the immediate seizure and destruction of the seventh and eighth issues of the opposition cultural magazine Arche on the grounds that their content was “extremist”. “We are again confronted by an absurd logic,” RSF said. “The administrative and judicial...

Two independent journalists have arrested on trumped-up charges in Uzbekistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Sunday, prosecutors in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, detained Dilmurod Saiid on charges of extortion, the independent news website Uznews reported. Saiid writes for a number of independent and pro-opposition websites, local CPJ sources said. In a separate case...

The cost of legal fees in defamation cases should be controlled, the British government has announced, according to BBC. The proposals for England and Wales follow claims that high fees are having an effect on freedom of expression. Newspaper lawyers have said that some stories are simply ignored—to avoid the possible expense of a libel case. Justice Minister Bridget Prentice expressed concern...