Europe - Central Asia

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is backing a proposed directive which Dutch MEP Jules Maaten was expected to submit to the European Parliament on July 17 and which would prevent Europe's Internet companies from being forced to cooperate with repressive regimes in censoring and monitoring the Internet. Inspired by America's proposed Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA), it would allow these companies...

A contributing reporter for the Turkmen Service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) who was forcibly held for two weeks in two different psychiatric facilities has now had his phone disabled, according to RFE/RL. Bowing to international pressure, authorities freed Sazak Durdymuradov on July 3. A security officer warned him to "go and tell the truth" about his treatment in...

Turkmenistan has released a reporter working for US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) after two weeks of detention, Reuters has reported quoting a RFE/RL statement. RFE/RL said last month Sazak Durdymuradov, a contributing reporter on its Turkmen service, was detained and tortured after he refused to stop working for the Prague-based broadcaster. "The move came amid growing pressure...

Two journalists in Russia's Bashkortostan Republic have been convicted under the country's vague extremism law. Each has been sentenced to serve a suspended two-year prison term. Their newspaper has been shuttered. On June 25, the Kirov District Court in the regional capital of Ufa, in the central Russian Republic of Bashkortostan, convicted and sentenced Viktor Shmakov, editor-in-chief of the...

Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal on the appointment of the president of the French public television broadcaster, France Télévisions, contravenes international standards regarding the independence of public service broadcasting, and should be opposed, ARTICLE 19 has said. President Sarkozy suggested on June 26 that the president of France Télévisions should be appointed by the executive branch upon the...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has protested the adoption by the Romanian Senate of a draft law obliging radio and television stations to transmit positive and negative news "in an equal proportion." "One can hardly think about a more absurd proposal than a 'good news and bad news' law," said EFJ Chairman Arne König on Tuesday. "This is obvious political interference in the editorial...

The man suspected of killing Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 is hiding in Western Europe, Russia's chief criminal investigator said Tuesday, according to Reuters. Some details: "According to our information, the murderer is hiding in Western Europe," Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Prosecutor-General's investigation unit, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. "We even...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the abduction, torture, and forcible psychiatric hospitalisation of Sazak Durdymuradov, a contributing reporter for the Turkmen Service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), in the Western city of Bakhaden. According to RFE/RL, Durdymuradov was seized by agents of the secret police (MNB) from his Bakhaden home on June 20...

Sazak Durdymuradov, a contributing reporter for the Turkmen Service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), in the Western city of Bakhaden, has been abducted, tortured and subjected to forcible psychiatric hospitalisation. According to RFE/RL, Durdymuradov was seized by agents of the secret police (MNB) from his Bakhaden home on June 20 and forcibly taken to a local psychiatric...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Tuesday welcomed a renewed call by European parliamentarians for Ukraine to bring to justice "those who instigated and organised the murder of Heorhiy Gongadze." The call was made by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg who today expressed "deep concern" that Ukraine...