Europe - Central Asia

Azerbaijan’s Garadagh District Court in Baku on Tuesday sentenced imprisoned independent editor Eynulla Fatullayev to two and a half years in a strict-regime prison after finding him guilty of drug possession. Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, has already served more than three years of an eight and a half year term on a series of fabricated charges...

Denmark's top prosecutor on Friday charged a Somali man with terrorism for allegedly trying to kill a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed. Joergen Steen Soerensen said the man, who cannot be named under a court order, wanted to "seriously frighten the population" and destabilise Denmark in the January attack on Kurt Westergaard. The 28-year-old allegedly forced himself into Westergaard...

Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed and caused outrage in the Muslim world, said Monday he is quitting because he is getting old, the Associated Press has reported. "One has to stop at some point," Westergaard said, adding that he has been working since age 23, first as a teacher and then as an artist. He turns 75 on July 13. Westergaard said he hopes his...

Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz on Monday announced a decision to delay a vote on a number of media bills which critics have warned constitute a throwback to state control in the former Soviet satellite state. Hungary’s parliament was due to vote on Monday on the proposed creation of a powerful Media Council – strongly criticised by opposition politicians and journalists – which would operate within...

Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband a legal right for every citizen. From July 1 every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection, says a BBC report. Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015. In the UK the government has promised a minimum connection of at least 2Mbps to all homes by 2012 but...

Press freedom groups have expressed concern over the Romanian National Defence Strategy which has been adopted by the Romanian Supreme Defence Council (CSAT) and passed on to the Romanian Parliament. The President of Romania initiated a National Defence Strategy which contained, among other things, serious allegations against the media - which is described as a security threat and vulnerability...

A controversial law curbing wiretaps and imposing heavy fines on journalists who publish leaked ‘wiretap’ material was passed recently by the Italian Senate. The president of the Italian Senate announced that the much-debated wiretap law had been approved by the Senate with 164 votes in favour. Of a total 323 senators, only 189 were in the room when the bill was voted on. Representatives of the...

Five journalists with the Dagestani independent weekly Chernovik are being prosected, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Editor-in-Chief Nadira Isayeva and reporters Magomed Magomedov, Artur Mamayev, Timur Mustafayev, and Biyakai Magomedov are charged with incitement of hatred and demeaning the honour of law enforcement officials as a “social group” in several stories...

Kyrgyz authorities have detained independent journalists Ulugbek Abdusalomov and Azimjon Askarov in the southern part of the country engulfed by ethnic violence since early June, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On June 14, unknown men picked up Abdusalomov, chief editor of independent newspaper Diydor, from a street in the Jalal-Abad region; police are holding him in a...

Iceland’s parliament, the Alpinghi, has unanimously approved a resolution known as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) that calls on the government to draft legislation in line with its recommendations for the protection of media, journalists and bloggers. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) hailed this ambitious and positive initiative, adopted on June 15, and called on the government to do...