Russia / Europe & Central Asia

  

Military Police Torture Journalists in Zimbabwe

January 23, 1999 His Excellency Boris Yeltsin President of the Russian Federation Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the criminal prosecution of Altaf Galeyev for practicing his profession of journalism. His trial is scheduled to begin on February 4, 1999. Galeyev was formerly the news director of Radio Titan,…

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Military Police Torture Journalists in Zimbabwe

January 23, 1999 His Excellency Boris Yeltsin President of the Russian Federation Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the criminal prosecution of Altaf Galeyev for practicing his profession of journalism. His trial is scheduled to begin on February 4, 1999. Galeyev was formerly the news director of Radio Titan,…

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Enemies of the Press: The 10 Worst Offenders of 1997

On May 3, in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day, CPJ announced its annual choices of the top 10 Enemies of the Press worldwide. Those who made the list this year, as in the past, earned the dubious distinction by exhibiting particular zeal for the ruthless suppression of journalists. For the second consecutive year, the…

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1998 Press Freedom Awards – Sheremet

Pavel Sheremet Bureau Chief, ORT Russian television Editor, Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta Pavel Sheremet has endured every conceivable type of official harassment for his coverage of Belarus‘ slide toward authoritarianism. Minsk bureau chief for the Russian public television company ORT since 1996 and editor in chief of the newspaper Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta since 1995, Sheremet —…

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Introduction

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Caucasian republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have declared their desire to model themselves after Western European societies, with free – market economies and democratic government. But their passage from communism to a new social order has been rife with contradictions. In the current transition period, leaders of…

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Azerbaijan’s Media Navigate a Legal Maze

Editors of Baku’s leading newspapers were thrown into turmoil in early November 1996. The Milli Medjlis had just amended the law on mass media to require licensing in addition to registration with the Ministry of Justice before newspapers could begin, or continue, operating. Fourteen chief editors of newspapers and news agencies gathered in December to…

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Key Media Officials in Azerbaijan

Minister of Press and Information: Siruz Khudat ogli Tabrizli, born 1942 in Tabriz, Iran. A writer, poet, former journalist. Holds democratic views but is a strong supporter of President Heidar Aliyev. Member of parliament and a leader of Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan party. Serves as minister under the “List of 18” exception which allows 15 percent…

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Armenian Officials Tout Press Freedom But Bully the Press

There are two views of the press in Armenia today. The first holds that the press is entirely free to report as it chooses. The second is that the press is irresponsible. One thing is certain: In the absence of censorship, Armenian officials resort to verbal pressure and sometimes physical retribution, to knock journalists into…

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Armenia’s New Journalists

The collapse of Soviet-style journalism has brought a new type of writer to the fore-youthful, enthusiastic, but often without training or experience. A problem in Armenian journalism is the need to replace Soviet-era training with new methods. Ruben A. Satyan says he assigns new recruits at Vremya to senior editors for on-the-job training. Astghik Gevorkian,…

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Oil Flows More Freely than Ideas in Azerbaijan

The smell of oil, profits, and risk hang heavily over Baku. To the Western visitor, this port city looks like a boom town. Azerbaijan has discovered new oil reserves in the Caspian Sea which may be nearly as great as those of Kuwait. And outsiders are rushing to town to pump oil and get rich…

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