Europe - Central Asia

The UN war crimes tribunal on Wednesday sentenced a Croatian journalist to three months in prison after finding him guilty of contempt for revealing the the names and personal details of confidential witnesses who had testified in one of its cases. Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic awaits the verdict of his case at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague, Netherlands, February 7...

Two French Muslim organisations are suing magazine Charlie Hebdo for printing cartoons satirising the prophet Mohammed. The trial began in Paris today in a civil lawsuit by the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France. Charlie Hebdo’s decision to reprint the Danish cartoons was taken at an especially fraught moment. Some 10 news media had been banned or suspended in...

For centuries, readers thumbed through the crackling pages of Sweden's Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper. No longer. The world's oldest paper still in circulation has dropped its paper edition and now exists only in cyberspace. The PoIT, which began in 1645, published its last print issue on Dec. 29 but is continuing on the Internet. 9Sven Nackstrant/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images) The...

Sweden's Post och Inrikes Tidningar, regarded as the world's oldest newspaper though it had actually become a government bulletin, has suspended publication to become available only on the Internet. Founded in 1645 by Queen Christina, the Post och Inrikes Tidningar (PoIT), or Post and Domestic Newspapers, was a staple for Swedish readers throughout the late 17th and 18th centuries. But its...

The Chechnya prosecutor’s office is investigating officers of the southern republic’s Interior Ministry in connection with articles by the slain investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, according to the Moscow business daily Kommersant. The daily Wednesday quoted Chechnya prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov as saying that Politkovskaya’s accounts of alleged torture last spring prompted his office to...

Some police officials in Chechnya are under criminal investigation for a possible role in the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian journalist, a New York-based news media rights group said here on Tuesday. The assertion, by the Committee to Protect Journalists, cast fresh attention on the possibility of an official role in a crime that was roundly condemned in the West, and drew a...

On New Year's Day an era came to a close as the world's oldest newspaper went out of print. Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (Post and Domestic Newspapers) has been churning out announcements since 1645. But from now on, following a parliamentary decree, the newspaper will only be available online. In 1645 Queen Kristina and her advisor, Axel Oxenstierna, were urged by the state to ward off rumour...

ZAGREB, Croatia: The prime minister on Friday requested that the managing board of Croatia’s state-run news agency be dissolved — just months after it was appointed by his government — saying it had failed to consult employees when choosing a new director-general. Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the four-member board of the HINA agency demonstrated a “great democratic deficit” because they made a...

BRUSSELS, Belgium: A European Union high court on Wednesday denied a German journalist's request for damages after the EU anti-fraud office gave information to law enforcement authorities that led to his detention. The EU's Court of First Instance said that handing over the information about Hans-Martin Tillack, who was a correspondent for German news weekly Stern, to authorities in Belgium and...

The contempt of court proceedings against several Croatian journalists before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are a new development in the history of the international courts that were created in the early 1990s to try senior officials suspected of war crimes or crimes against humanity. REVEALING MORE THAN CALLED FOR: The International Criminal Tribunal for...