Europe & Central Asia

New York, November 16, 1999 — A Turkish criminal court today officially “froze” its case against American journalist Andrew Finkel, the Associated Press reported. Turkish authorities informed Finkel in June that he had been charged with “insulting the Turkish military,” an offense that carries a penalty of up to six years imprisonment. The charge was…

I am writing once again to express CPJ’s ongoing concern about the deterioration of press freedom conditions in Serbia, and about the continued harassment and prosecution of journalists there. I last wrote on September 30, to remind you of the commitment you made during our September 20 meeting in Belgrade to investigate a number of press freedom abuses. In your October 6 response, you objected to statements I made to the Serbian press regarding the April 23 bombing of Radio and Television Serbia (RTS). As you well know, the concerns I raised about RTS officials not taking sufficient action to safeguard the security of their employees prior to the NATO attack have been voiced repeatedly in the local press, and by the families of the victims.

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the death of Supian Ependiyev, a veteran correspondent for the independent Chechnya weekly Groznenskiy Rabochiy, in a recent rocket attack on the Chechen capital, Grozny

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by a murder attempt and series of death threats against Sergei Zhubinsky, a reporter with the privately-owned local XXI Vek television station in Achinsk, in the Krasnoyarsk region.

What kind of journalism triggers Turkish state retribution? Read for yourself.

Cartoon by Dogan Guzel (Published in Ozgur Ulke on December 11, 1994) On May 17, 1996, an Istanbul criminal court convicted Güzel, a cartoonist with the Kurdish nationalist daily Özgür Ülke,under Article 160 of the Turkish Penal Code (insulting the Turkish Republic). He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. The basis of the conviction was a…

For the complete Turkish text of Mehmed’s Book, click on the link below: http://members.xoom.com/mehmedin/ English Excerpt: An Istanbul taxi driver recalls his military service in southeast Turkey (1992-1994)

Sirnak—Like other journalists before me, I was taken to the southeast on a trip organized by the Turkish Joint Chiefs of Staff. Most of our time was spent in and around Sirnak, a border garrison town that has become symbolic of all the problems of that region. Nowadays, the principal landmark in Sirnak is the…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly troubled by your government’s recent attempts to censor four opposition newspapers prior to the October 31 presidential elections.