Europe - Central Asia

Seventeen German journalists are under investigation in the alleged leak of classified documents given to a parliamentary committee. The documents related to a parliamentary inquiry into possible German government complicity in CIA prisoner flights and the detention of two men. German opposition parties have condemned a criminal investigation into journalists accused of quoting from classified...

RSF condemns the 20 July 2007 seizure order by Judge Juan del Olmo of an issue of the satirical weekly magazine "El Jueves". The issue carries a cartoon on the cover of Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia having sex. The judge said the cartoon may have violated Article 490.3 of the Criminal Code, which punishes "insults" to the royal family by up to two years imprisonment, and also Article...

The leader of a nationalist party has been acquitted of calling Islamic leaders traitors after they had sought support in the Middle East against a Danish newspaper, which first published controversial cartoons of prophet Mohammed. In December 2005 and January 2006, nine imams from Denmark travelled to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon to seek support from religious and political leaders to protest the...

Six months after the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, 18 suspects went on trial Monday in a case widely seen as a test of whether the country's judiciary will be able to investigate allegations of official negligence in the slaying, news reports said. Dink was gunned down on January 19 and his killing led to international condemnation and debate within Turkey about free speech...

The Sun and other News International newspapers could outsource part of their TV listings operation to India, as part of the company’s cost-cutting drive. News International is in talks with PA Solutions – a division of the PA Group, which also owns the Press Association wire service – about outsourcing its centralised listings operation, which supplies TV scheduling information to its four...

The Russian government has asked the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), which represents more than 100,000 journalists, to vacate its offices in central Moscow. RUJ Secretary-General Igor Yakovenko said the union received a letter from the Federal Property Management Agency on May 16 saying it would have to hand over its premises to the state-owned Russia Today TV station within a month. RUJ is...

A court in the Azerbaijani capital Baku has sentenced two journalists to 30 months in prison apiece on charges of defaming President Ilham Aliyev’s uncle. Yasamal District Court Judge Malahat Abdulmanafova Wednesday convicted Editor-in-Chief Rovshan Kebirli and reporter Yashar Agazadeh of the Baku-based opposition daily Muhalifet on charges of defaming Jalal Aliyev under articles 147 and 148 of...

A military court has acquitted three journalists of publishing a leaked document that was intercepted by the Swiss intelligence service. The case, commonly known as the “CIA fax affair”, had been widely followed both in and outside Switzerland because of its implications for press freedom and the role of military justice. A military tribunal ruled that SonntagsBlick reporters Sandro Brotz, Beat...

Slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya's diaries, published in English this week, paint a damning picture of a Russia where democracy is stifled, fascism is on the rise and ethnic minorities are brutally repressed. For her, one man is to blame -- President Vladimir Putin. Her hard-hitting account of Russian news and politics over two years, including the parliamentary elections in 2003 and the Beslan...

A French court Thursday cleared satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in a case brought by Muslims who were angered by its publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. The court’s decision is being seen as a major victory for free speech in France. Philippe Val, chief editor of the French satirical weekly "Charlie Hebdo", speaks with the media in Paris March 22, 2007. A French court ruled in...