New York, September 26, 2001— Japanese free-lance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka has now been missing since late July, when he reportedly left Georgia for Chechnya to interview Chechen rebels. Tsuneoka, 32, last communicated with his family via e-mail at the end of July after arriving in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, the Japan Economic Newswire reported. He wrote…
New York, July 27, 2001–A popular 26-year-old Georgian journalist was found dead in his Tbilisi apartment yesterday, according to local and international reports. Georgy Sanaya was shot once in the head at close range with a 9mm weapon. Sanaya anchored “Night Courier,” a nightly political talk show in which he interviewed Georgia’s leading politicians on…
October 17, 2001 – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will present its 2001 International Press Freedom Awards to four journalists from China, Zimbabwe, Argentina, and the West Bank who have defied death threats, braved bullets, and endured jail to report the news. The 11th Annual Press Freedom Awards will be presented at a dinner…
POLITICAL REFORMS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH, along with the advent of democratic governments in Croatia and Serbia, brightened the security prospects for journalists in Central Europe and the Balkans. In contrast, Russian’s new government imposed press restrictions, and authoritarian regimes entrenched themselves in other countries of the former Soviet Union, particularly in Central Asia, further threatening…
ALONG WITH ORGANIZED CRIME, SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS, and the excesses of regional strongmen, spillover from Russia’s war in neighboring Chechnya added to Georgia’s woes in 2000, making the lives of local journalists even more difficult. On October 16, the body of an Italian journalist who had covered the Chechen conflict was found on a mountain pass…