Europe - Central Asia

A bewspaper in the southern Russian city of Saratov is facing closure following the campaign launched against it by the United Russia party for “insulting” President Vladimir Putin in a cartoon on its front page. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the regional court of Saratov to act judiciously and avoid being manipulated when it rules on October 2 on a bid by the pro-Putin United

The Swedish cartoonist who depicted Islam's prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog has gone into hiding following a death threat from Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Lars Vilks, who was whisked away by the police when he returned to Sweden from Germany on Sunday, said police have described the threats against him as "very serious." The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, offered $100,000 over the...

A Swedish Muslim group is planning to sue a local newspaper for publishing a drawing of the prophet Mohammed with a dog's body. The Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Orebro printed the cartoon made by artist Lars Vilks in an August editorial that criticised Swedish art galleries for not displaying Vilks' art. Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Federation, told the Associated Press (AP)...

More Islamic countries have protested against a Swedish newspaper's publication of a cartoon that has been deemed offensive by Muslims. The Swedish government has, however, refused to apologise on behalf of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper. The Egyptian ministry of religious endowments Sunday denounced the cartoon as "irresponsible and offensive", according to Kuwaiti news agency KUNA. "Such an...

A court in Russia’s west-central republic of Tatarstan has convicted five members of a criminal gang in the 2000 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Igor Domnikov, the newspaper reported Thursday. The convictions are the first involving a journalist murdered for his or her work since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). During that time, CPJ found, 14 journalists have been...

(BIANET/IFEX) - The judiciary in Turkey has again blocked access to a website because of the content of one item on the site. Following the blocking of the alternative dictionary website "Eksisözlük" (literally, "sour dictionary"; http://sozluk.sourtimes.org/Default.asp? ) and the website Antoloji.com ( http://www.antoloji.com/ ), access to the website WordPress.com ( http://wordpress.com/ ) has...

Another cartoon row seems to be brewing up in – this time in Sweden where a newspaper has published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog. Iran summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires on Monday to protest against the publication of the “disrespectful" drawing of the prophet. Leading figures in Sweden's media industry have backed newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, which has published the cartoon...

Ten suspects have been arrested in the October 2006 assassination in Moscow of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya. Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika told reporters Monday that the detained suspects include current and former police and Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, along with members of a criminal gang that “specialises in contract killings” and is led by a Chechen crime...

Artist Lars Vilks has made three drawings ridiculing the prophet Mohammed. The prophet is portrayed as a “roundabout dog”. So far three art exhibitions have declined to publish his pictures. The Art Association in Tällerud said no. Then the school Gerlesborgsskolan in the county of Bohuslän said no. Now the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm has also said no. This is unacceptable self-censorship. A...

Russian journalist Larisa Arap has been released from a psychiatric clinic near the northern city of Murmansk where she had been held against her will for 46 days. The 48-year Arap, an active member of the opposition United Civic Front, was forcefully hospitalised in what she says was retribution for an article she had written denouncing abuse against patients at another local psychiatric clinic...