Moscow police say two Chechens suspected in Klebnikov murder
New York, September 28, 2004—Moscow police said today that they have arrested two Chechen men suspected in the July 9 murder of Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes Russia, according to local and international press reports. Police Chief Vladimir Pronin said the men, arrested last night, had been wanted in connection with a kidnapping case. Three…
SERBIA & MONTENEGRO: Kosovo journalist attacked
New York, September 24, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that Fatmire Terdevci, an investigative reporter with the Kosovo independent daily Koha Ditore, was shot and wounded yesterday, according to The Associated Press and local CPJ sources. Yesterday, Terdevci, 30, was traveling from Glogovac, a small town in central Kosovo, to the capital, Pristina,…
KREMLIN PRESSURES LITHUANIA TO CLOSE PRO-CHECHEN WEB SITE
New York, September 21, 2004—Lithuania’s State Security Department (VSD) closed the pro-Chechen Web site KavkazCenter on Friday after coming under intense pressure from the Kremlin, according to local and international press reports. The closure came one week after Lithuanian Ambassador to Russia Rimantas Sidlauskas was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow for an…
Four years later, case of murdered journalist Gongadze remains unsolved
New York, September 16, 2004—Four years after the disappearance and death of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze, the Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by the lack of progress in the government’s inquiry into the case. CPJ also remains concerned that journalists are being harassed in the run-up to October elections. “It is reprehensible that President…
Court shuts Internews ahead of parliamentary elections
New York, September 14, 2004—A court in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent shut the media training organization Internews-Uzbekistan yesterday for six months for violating a law regulating non-governmental organizations, according to local and international press reports. The closure comes amid a broad government crackdown on the independent media and non-governmental organizations ahead of parliamentary elections…
DRC: Fragile Freedom
Unrest shatters press freedom gains in the Democratic Republic of Congo with attacks and imprisonments surging yet again.A Special report by Julia Crawford The fragile state of press freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo was shattered when the eastern city of Bukavu fell briefly to Rwandan-backed rebels in early June. State-imposed restrictions and imprisonment,…
Cameraman arrested during railway seizure; sentenced to 15 days in prison
New York, September 8, 2004—A cameraman with the Chisinau-based state television station Moldova One was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison this week after trying to cover the seizure of a Moldovan railway station in the breakaway enclave of Trans-Dniester. The cameraman, Dinu Mija, and Moldova One correspondent Lyudmila Munteanu were on assignment…
Independent coverage obstructed in Beslan; detentions, harassment reported
New York, September 7, 2004— Independent media coverage of last week’s hostage crisis in Beslan, Russia, was obstructed several times by detentions or harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Thirty to 40 heavily armed fighters, allegedly of Chechen, Ingush and North Ossetian origin, took more than 1,000 children, parents and teachers hostage on…
PROMINENT RUSSIAN JOURNALIST SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR HOOLIGANISM
New York, September 3, 2004-—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at today’s decision of a Moscow court to sentence prominent journalist Andrei Babitsky, a correspondent for the Russian Service of the U.S. governmentfunded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), to five days in prison for “hooliganism.” According to local press reports, police at Vnukovo Airport…