Europe - Central Asia

Northern Ireland's only Irish language daily newspaper is closing down. West Belfast-based La Nua (New Day) will shut at the end of the year after more than two decades in production because official funding has been withdrawn, its managing director said. Mairtin O Muilleoir added that a proposal to provide a service online at reduced cost had been rejected by all-Ireland sponsoring body Foras na...

Cholpon Orozobekova, editor-in-chief of leading Kyrgyzstan newspaper De Facto, is seeking political asylum in a European country. She was forced to emigrate with her husband—also a well-known journalist in Kyrgyzstan—and their two small children because of several criminal charges against her, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has reported. Orozobekova, 33, worked as a freelancer for RFE...

Ukraine's National Expert Commission on the Protection of Public Morality has ruled that the registration of daily Blik should be withdrawn and criminal proceedings brought against the newspaper. On October 23, the commission recommended that legal sanctions be taken against Blik, which is owned by Adevarul Holding, a Romanian media company, for publishing several photographs of half-naked women...

The Kyrgyzstan government has refused to resume local retransmission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service unless it submits programmes for prior approval. The demand was made on December 15 by Melis Eshimkanov, head of state-owned broadcaster UTRK, who told a RFE/RL delegation its programmes were “too negative and critical.” “This political decision is intolerable,” Paris-based...

Journalists are frequently being summoned for questioning by the Special Services of Kyrgyzstan, Adil Soz has reported. On December 5, the founder of the local Buran radio station, independent journalist Rakhmanzhan Islamov, was summoned for questioning at the Department of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) in the city of Tokmok. The independent press agency 24.kg reported that...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has expressed concern at the state of photojournalism in Europe following an EFJ seminar in Paris last weekend. "The importance of a photo, an image which tells a story and is an irreplaceable part of journalism, must be protected and treated as any other editorial creative work," said Arne König, EFJ President, who participated in the meeting on 'Photo...

If state impunity itself over the scores of unsolved murder cases of journalists in Russia was not enough, press freedom groups now have to even prove that the killings were indeed murders. The death of Magomed Yevloyev, who succumbed to injuries in hospital after being shot on the temple while in police custody on August 31, had evoked criticism against the government and the police from

The public outcry over the arrest and humiliation of the former managing editor of leftwing daily Libération, Vittorio de Filippis, may lead to the modification of libel laws in France. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, giving in to the simmering discontent, over the journalist’s arrest, has said that he wants to change the law and decriminalise defamation, thereby removing the threat of arrest

The Council of Europe’s decision to adopt a treaty on access to information has created more ire than evoking support because of its "incomplete" and "unsupportive" status. Without discussing issues pointed out by members of parliament, over 250 civil society groups, a dozen European information commissioners and several governments—the secretive approach of Council of Europe (CoE) has raised

The ‘war on terror’ in Europe has seriously affected freedom of expression while providing little benefit in fighting terrorism. The last seven years have seen many policy and legislative changes in several nations which have threatened journalists' ability to gather and disseminate information. Since 2001, nearly all European countries have revised their legislation and policies relating to