Europe - Central Asia

The Bratislava Regional Court has ordered Slovak broadcaster Radio Viva to pay over EUR 30,000 in libel damages to a Slovak judge, in connection with a 2004 report on fraud charges brought against him. The report—an item in a regular evening news broadcast—was based on comments made by then Interior Minister Vladimír Palko at an official press conference. The court found that a statement made by...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has expressed its solidarity with staff and unions of Italian TV Channel La7 who are facing an unprecedented wave of lay-offs. EFJ, the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), called on Italian lawmakers to condemn the cutbacks which will affect more than a quarter of the workforce. "We urge the Italian Parliament, which on...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has expressed great concern over the extent of surveillance by the German Telekom including against journalists, which has taken alarming dimensions in Germany. “It is not acceptable that Telekom could misuse data retention to violate protection of sources and press freedom by engaging in surveillance of journalists, work council representatives and...

A member of the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial jury has denied that the jury had asked for the press and public to be excluded, saying it was the clerk of the court who asked them to sign a statement to this effect which they had not drafted. The jury member said this in an interview to independent radio station Echo Moskvy, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Juror Yevgeny Kolesov told...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has accused the German Football Federation of launching an unfair campaign of distortion and lies against a journalist who has criticised its President, Theo Zwanziger, one of the country's leading sports officials. Jens Weinreich, an investigative journalist with Berliner Zeitung, is a specialist in the area of international politics of sports who has...

The supreme court in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in the west Uzbekistan has upheld a ten-year jail sentence for drug-trafficking against journalist and human rights activist Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The court in the capital Noukous passed sentence without taking into account defence argument that the authorities targeted him because of...

Moscow prosecutors say they have warned the Russian-language edition of the Newsweek magazine for allegedly insulting Muslims, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. [ Link] The Moscow Prosecutor's Office says the magazine published two stories that could be "insulting or humiliating" to Muslims. It said Tuesday an article also included one of the 2005 Danish cartoons depicting the prophet...

Russian prosecutors are launching inquiries across the country against news media reporting on the financial crisis in a bid to stem growing concern about its impact, Moscow-based business newspaper Kommersant reported on Wednesday. "It's not censorship. We're just checking how reliable the information is," a press official from the prosecutor general's office was quoted as saying by Agence France...

An Armenian journalist known for writing stories exposing government corruption has been attacked and beaten by unknown assailants, the seventh such incident in the country this year, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has reported. Edik Baghdasarian, an award-winning investigative reporter who runs the Yerevan-based online magazine Hetq, said he had left his office in downtown Yerevan at...

A Moscow court has reversed an earlier decision and barred the public and media from the trial of four men accused of murdering journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Yevgeny Zubov, the presiding judge in the trial of four men for the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, Wednesday ruled that the press and public will henceforth be excluded, reversing the decision he took on the first...