European Court of Human Rights condemns Russia in media case
New York, May 20, 2004—The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that Russian authorities used a politically motivated criminal investigation in 2000 to try to take over the print and broadcast operations of Russian media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky. The Strasbourg, France–based court said that Russian authorities illegally harassed and arrested Gusinsky on charges of…
RFE/RL programming aired despite crackdown
New York, May 14, 2004—Two months after U.S. government–funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) broadcasts were pulled off the air in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a radio station in central Ukraine has begun carrying news from RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. Radio Takt, an independent station based in the city of Vinnitsya, began broadcasting RFE/RL programming on its…
Turkmen journalist brutally beaten in his Moscow apartment
New York, May 12, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is appalled by the brutal April 30 attack on Mukhamed Berdiyev, a correspondent for the Turkmen Service of the U.S. government–funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), who was beaten by unknown assailants in his apartment in Moscow. He was discovered lying unconscious three days later…
REUTERS JOURNALIST KILLED IN CHECHNYA BOMBING
New York, May 10, 2004—Adlan Khasanov, a cameraman working for the British news agency Reuters, was killed by a bomb yesterday morning in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya, according to local and international press reports. The powerful bomb exploded at approximately 10:35 a.m. in the Dynamo Stadium in the Chechen capital of Grozny, where Khasanov…
Journalists beaten at opposition rally
New York, May 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Friday, April 30, attack on journalists covering an opposition rally in the city of Batumi, in the autonomous republic of Ajaria in southern Georgia. According to Alexi Tvaradze, a cameraman with the independent television station Rustavi-2, several police officers beat him with clubs…
Council of Europe calls for sanctions against Belarus
New York, April 30, 2004—The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which is based in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday passed a resolution seeking sanctions against the authoritarian government of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko for failing to properly investigate a series of abductions, including the July 2000 abduction of journalist Dmitry Zavadsky. PACE called…
TV station back on the air after a 40-day shutdown
New York, April 28, 2004—The independent television station Pyramida, based in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, was returned to the air yesterday after being prevented from broadcasting for 40 days, according to local and international reports. The station stopped broadcasting on March 17 because of a technical problem with the transmission equipment it shares with…