Russia / Europe & Central Asia

Faced with a mounting toll of Russian journalists’ abductions, the new Chechen government has heavily restricted reporters’ movements. The May kidnapping of independent Russian NTV’s prominent war reporter Yelena Masyuk and two crew members was the latest in a string of kidnappings, possibly related to the intention of some Chechen factions to derail the 1996…

On April 3, 1981, three New York journalists filed incorporating papers for a new organization called The Committee to Protect Journalists, dedicated to the defense “of the human and professional rights of journalists around the world.”

Africa For the third consecutive year, Ethiopia held more journalists in jail–31 at year’s end–than any other country in Africa. Most were detained without charges.