Europe - Central Asia

A Baku court Tuesday convicted the editor of a small, minority newspaper on a treason charge and to sentence him to 10 years in prison. Novruzali Mamedov, editor of now-defunct Talyshi Sado (Voice of the Talysh), was tried in closed-door proceedings that began in March, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Judge Shakir Alekserov of the Court for Grave Crimes read...

A court in Azerbaijan convicted a newspaper editor of state treason Tuesday and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, the Associated Press (AP) has eported. Novruzali Mammadov, the editor of Talysh Sado, or Voice of the Talysh, was arrested in February 2007 together with the paper's administrator, Elman Guliyev, who also was found guilty Tuesday and sentenced to six years imprisonment. The editor's...

Times Online has rolled out an elaborate digital newspaper archive stretching back more than 200 years. The archive includes more than 20 million articles from every edition of the Times except for a small number of damaged issues from 1785 to 1985, says a Guardian report. It includes the Thunderer's coverage of events such as the Battle of Waterloo, the first convicts arriving at Botany Bay and...

A Macedonian journalist suspected raping and killing at least at two women and then reporting on the crimes committed suicide in jail, news reports said Monday, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). Vlado Tanevski, a correspondent for several newspapers including the Utrinski Vesnik daily, was found drowned in a bucket of water, Macedonian media quoted police as saying. There was no evidence...

An Azerbaijani journalist who has been honored by Amnesty International says authorities have prevented him from taking a flight out of the country, according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Aqil Xalil, a 25-year-old correspondent with Azadliq, Azerbaijan's largest opposition daily, was shortlisted for Amnesty's Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat. The award...

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Armenia's repeated denials of a broadcasting licence to the independent A1+ television station violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the verdict, the Armenian government must pay the station 20,000 euros (US$31,000) in damages. Famous for its criticism of Armenian authorities, A1+ was forced off the air in...

Authorities at Heydar Aliyev International Airport barred a reporter whose life has been threatened from leaving the country today, the Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety said. Agil Khalil, a reporter for the independent daily Azadlyg, tried to board a flight to France Thursday morning when he was stopped by a plainclothes agent at a passport checkpoint. Khalil did not receive...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the closing of the alternative English-language biweekly the eXile in Moscow. The paper announced on its website last week that it was forced to shut down after nervous investors withdrew support in the wake of a politicised audit of its content. "Russian authorities are using politicized inspections and broadly worded extremism...

Swedish Parliament passed Wednesday evening a controversial bill allowing the government to monitor all SMS, email and other data traffic crossing Swedish borders with 143 in favour, 138 opposed and one parliamentarian abstaining. Faced with powerful criticism from the opposition, international experts, and from within its own ranks, the government sent the bill back to a parliamentary committee...

The main owner of Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos and the daily's editor have been acquitted of charges of “trying to obstruct a fair trial” by publishing an editorial that criticised the one-year suspended prison sentences imposed on three of its journalists. Serkis Seropyan, the main owner of Agos and editor Aris Nalci were Wednesday acquitted by a criminal court in the Istanbul district of...