Europe - Central Asia

A U.N. tribunal charged a Croat journalist with contempt of court on Monday for revealing the names of two witnesses who testified in a war crimes case. Freelance journalist Domagoj Margetic named the protected witnesses from the trial of General Tihomir Blaskic on his personal Web site in July and August of this year, the tribunal said in a statement. The U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia...

Muslims in UK blame Islamophobia on the portrayal of their religion in the media, a survey has revealed. An overwhelming 92 per cent feel this is either a very significant or significant problem. A significant number of the other respondents surveyed too think it is indeed a problem, with 44 per cent UK public and 40 per cent Jews saying so. THEIR STORY: It was striking that Muslims feel more...

Two journalists were charged with exposing German state secrets on al Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a case their defenders called a blow to press freedom. Prosecutors in the city of Potsdam, near Berlin, said on Wednesday they were pursuing a case against German reporter Bruno Schirra and the foreign editor of Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick, Johannes von Dohnanyi, over an...

It’s like deja vu. Just over a month ago, Britain was awaiting the launch of two new women’s weeklies. Now, just as they’ve arrived on newsstands, two more publishers have let out word that they too will be launching two new women’s weeklies. On Monday, British publishing giant Emap said that it will spend more than $21 million on launching a magazine into the sector early this summer. And...

The chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has decided to withdraw the indictments against three Croatian journalists charged with contempt. She says that “in the interest of justice and judicial economy” she’s chosen not to proceed against Stjepan Seselj, Domagoj Margetic and Marijan Krizic, who had been all charged in connection with revealing the identity, statement and testimony of a protected...

The big story in Europe before Christmas was that the CIA operated clandestine prisons in eight European countries where it was questioning Al-Qaeda suspects and secretly flew the prisoners through European air space. Condoleezza Rice basically confirmed to European governments there had been clandestine flights, but "What prisons?" and the host governments named said, "No way." So it comes as a...

ZAGREB - A Croatian journalist charged by the UN war crimes tribunal with contempt of court has defied it by publishing the secret testimony of a protected witness on the Internet, reports said on January 12. Domagoj Margetic put out on his personal website what appeared to be testimony by Croatian President Stipe Mesic during the 1997 trial of former Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic, the...

Military prosecutors in Switzerland have opened an investigation into a newspaper editor and two journalists for having published news of a secret fax which appears to confirm allegations of CIA secret prisons in Europe, Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) has reported. GOING TO THE POLE: The airport in Szymany, Poland, identified by Human Rights Watch as a potential site of alleged...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has condemned the ongoing treatment of the magazine Cicero and its reporter Bruno Schirra by German authorities, and urged the German interior minister to suspend the prosecutions against the magazine and its reporter. In a letter to the German interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, the IPI urged the ministry and the prosecutor's office to issue new...