New York, March 14, 2000 — In the latest government attack on independent media in Yugoslavia, police have shut down the opposition-run station Radio Television Pozega in the city of Pozega, 60 miles southwest of Belgrade. Police seized the station’s transmitter during the night of March 11-12, after accusing RTV Pozega of operating without a…
New York, March 10, 2000 — Artyom Borovik, a legendary figure in Russian journalism, died in an air accident yesterday. He was one of four passengers and five crew members who were killed when their private plane crashed during takeoff from Moscow on a flight bound for the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Officials are looking into…
New York, March 10, 2000 — Two weeks after Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky re-appeared following a month of mysterious captivity in Chechnya, confusion still surrounds his case. Today, the Russian Interfax news service reported that Babitsky had been charged with aiding Chechen rebels. Interfax said the Russian prosecutor general’s office had filed the charges,…
New York, March 7, 2000 — After a pre-dawn raid in which two employees were injured and transmission equipment stolen, the opposition station Studio B Television faced concerted legal harassment last night in Belgrade. At approximately 3 a.m. local time, five men wearing Serbian police uniforms forced their way into the Torlak broadcasting center, assaulted…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the physical and psychological abuse that veteran Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky has reported suffering at the hands of Russian forces during his detention at Chrernokozovo, a Russian detention camp near Grozny. We are also concerned that despite his release on February 29, after several weeks of captivity, Babitsky still faces criminal charges for allegedly traveling on a forged passport.
New York, February 29, 2000—CPJ is investigating reports that a Russian photographer kidnapped by Chechen rebels has been murdered. ITAR-TASS news agency photographer Vladimir Yatsina, 51, had been missing since July 19, 1999, following his arrival in the Ingushetian border town of Nazran. According to reports, he was then kidnapped and taken to Chechnya. At…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges you to order an investigation into the apparently illegal takeover of the independent television station Telekanal 25 in the Ajarian capital, Batumi. Late on the evening of February 19, former Batumi mayor and current Georgian parliamentarian Aslan Smirba forced three of Telekanal 25’s four owners to sign over 75 percent of the station’s shares to Mikhail Gagoshidze, whom CPJ’s sources describe as an unknown third party chosen by Smirba to be the station’s nominal owner.
Read an interview with Radio Free Europe official Paul A. Goble on the Babitsky case New York, February 29, 2000—War correspondent Andrei Babitsky was freed early today in Moscow, having been flown there from Dagestan without the knowledge of his wife or attorney. The Radio Free Europe correspondent had been missing since January 27, when…