Europe - Central Asia

There is genuine press freedom within the European Union. No state has ordered the murder or imprisonment of a journalist and state censorship is a thing of the past. Media express a diversity of opinion and a pluralism of ideas is generally assured. But the situation is not perfect for all that. Thw word of caution comes from Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), which has for the first time

Russia's lower house of parliament voted Friday to widen the definition of slander and libel and give regulators the authority to shut down media outlets found guilty of publishing such material, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The legislation, passed by the State Duma 339-1, is the latest attempt by the government to squeeze the country's increasingly embattled news media. Some details...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at the harassment in Chechnya of Jane Armstrong, Moscow correspondent for the Canadian national daily the Globe and Mail. Armstrong and her Russian photographer and interpreter Olga Kravets had travelled from Moscow to the Chechen capital of Grozny to report on social and cultural traditions in the southern republic last week, when...

German newspaper publishing houses are opposing plans by Deutsche Post World Net AG to launch a free newspaper, according to a Thomson Financial report. Deutsche Post's board member Juergen Gerdes Wednesday said in an interview with Financial Times Deutschland the German mail services company aims to grow its revenues from advertising as a way of offsetting declines in its core mail business, and...

A high-profile Croatian journalist has narrowly escaped an apparent murder attempt. Ivo Pukanic, the owner the Nacional weekly, was walking to his home just before midnight on April 10 when a man approached him and fired once from a gun with a silencer, the BalkanInsight.com website has reported. Pukanic quickly reacted and the bullet missed. The attacker tried to fire again but the gun failed to...

A proposed bill to amend the law on extremism will impose further restrictions on press freedom in Russia. Drafted by the prosecutor-general’s office, the bill was presented at a meeting organised by the Duma’s security committee on April 10. The proposed changes would allow prosecutors to exercise additional control over publications, especially websites. They would, for example, make it...

Kyrgyzstan authorities have closed the investigation into the October murder of Alisher Saipov, editor of the independent Uzbek-language weekly Siyosat (Politics), according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This is the second time authorities have officially closed the investigation in as many months. The Saipov family told New York-based CPJ that the local bureau of the Kyrgyz...

A BBC reporter in the UK was pinned to the ground by six policemen and searched under the Terrorism Act after his radio transmitter was mistaken for bomb equipment, says a report in the Telegraph. Max Khan, a correspondent for BBC Radio Stoke, was made to kneel down with his face to the floor in the centre of Hanley, Staffs. Police moved in on Khan after several shoppers raised concerns about an...

The new management at France's establishment influential daily Le Monde wants to sack 130 staff, including a quarter of its journalists, to stem heavy losses, Reuters has reported. Eric Fottorino, who was recently appointed as chief executive of the Le Monde group, told staff on Friday the tough restructuring plan was needed to keep the paper afloat. "To reject it would surely deny us any chance...

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey has introduced a bill to soften a controversial article in the country's penal code outlawing criticism of Turkish identity. The proposal, the Southeast European Times website reported, contains amendments to the controversial Article 301, which decrees jail sentences of three years or less for insulting "Turkishness". Prosecutors have used...