Europe & Central Asia

  

Russian prosecutor requests harsh sentences for editors of student-run magazine DOXA

Paris, April 6, 2022 — Russian authorities should immediately drop all charges against four former editors of the student-run magazine DOXA and stop listing journalists from independent media outlets as foreign agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On April 1, at a hearing at Dorogomilovsky district court in the capital Moscow, the state…

Read More ›

Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Khilyuk held by Russian forces since early March

Paris, April 6, 2022 — Russian authorities should release Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Khilyuk immediately and stop detaining members of the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Russian soldiers detained Khilyuk in the village of Kozarovychi, north of Kyiv, in early March, according to the Media Initiative Group for Human Rights,…

Read More ›

Hungarian journalists fear Orbán will use election win to tighten grip on independent media

As Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán celebrated his landslide election win on Sunday with jubilant jibes at the European Union’s “bureaucrats in Brussels” and international media, the country’s independent journalists braced themselves for an even harsher media climate during his Fidesz party’s unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office. Orbán has systematically eroded Hungary’s independent…

Read More ›

Russian soldiers detain journalist Oleksandr Gunko in southeastern Ukraine

Paris, April 4, 2022 – Russian authorities should immediately release journalist Oleksandr Gunko and stop detaining Ukrainian members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Sunday, April 3, Russian soldiers in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka searched Gunko’s home, seized his phones and electronic devices, and took him to…

Read More ›

Lithuanian documentarian Mantas Kvedaravičius killed in Ukraine 

Berlin, April 4, 2022— In response to reports that Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius was killed in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement, calling for those responsible to face justice: “We extend our deep condolences to the friends and family of Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was killed…

Read More ›

CPJ ‘deeply saddened’ by death of Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin

Paris, April 2, 2022 — In response to news reports that Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin, who had been missing since March 13, was found dead, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement calling for accountability: “We are deeply saddened by the news of photojournalist Maks Levin’s death in Ukraine while he was reporting…

Read More ›

Ukrainian journalist Konstantin Ryzhenko missing in Kherson

Paris, April 1, 2022 – Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Ukrainian journalist Konstantin Ryzhenko must come forward at once, and Russian authorities should stop detaining members of the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On Wednesday, March 30, Russian soldiers searched in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson…

Read More ›

Turkish lawmakers propose up to 3 years in prison for ‘hurting the reputation’ of a private company

Istanbul, March 31, 2022 – Turkish authorities should reject a proposed amendment to the country’s laws that would threaten members of the press with prison time over their reporting on private companies, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On March 26, members of parliament with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) proposed a…

Read More ›

Russian journalist Rodion Severyanov shot and wounded in Ukraine

Paris, March 30, 2022 – Russian and Ukrainian authorities should ensure that journalists are not targeted while reporting on the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On Tuesday, March 29, Rodion Severyanov, a war correspondent for the Russian broadcaster Izvestiya TV, was shot in the leg and wounded in the…

Read More ›

CPJ joins statement welcoming Council of Europe action against abusive lawsuits

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined other civil society groups and press freedom organizations in a joint statement on Wednesday welcoming recent steps by the Council of Europe to limit abusive lawsuits aimed at restricting public speech. A Committee of Experts with legal and media freedom backgrounds is set to draft a Recommendation for the…

Read More ›