Ukraine / Europe & Central Asia

  
A journalist films before a presidential press conference in Kiev on February 28, 2018. A Kiev prosecutor is refusing to return the passport of Turan TV's correspondent Fikret Huseynli. (AFP/Sergei Supinsky)

Prosecutor in Ukraine flouts court, refuses to return journalist’s passport

New York, April 4, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ukrainian prosecutors to return the passport of Fikret Huseynli, a Dutch national of Azerbaijani origin, and to respect a district court’s April 2 ruling that the journalist should not be extradited to Azerbaijan or have his movements restricted.

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A snow-covered street in central Kiev, Ukraine in March 2018. Ukrainian authorities confiscated journalist Fikret Huseynli's travel documents as he was attempting to fly out of Kiev in October 2017. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)

Journalist faces extradition from Ukraine to Azerbaijan, fears for his safety

New York, March 8, 2018–Ukrainian authorities should allow Fikret Huseynli (Huseinli), a journalist of Azerbaijani origin and a Dutch national, to leave the country safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unknown assailants on March 5 attacked Huseynli, a correspondent for the independent online television channel Turan, at an apartment building he was renting…

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Police detain protesters while the National Guard removes a camp near the parliament building in Kiev on March 3. At least two journalists were injured while covering the unrest. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)

In Ukraine, at least two journalists injured at Kiev protest

New York, March 5, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ukrainian authorities to investigate claims that police attacked journalists covering a protest in Kiev, and to ensure the safety of the press. At least two journalists were injured in Kiev on March 3 when police dispersed a protest camp outside parliament, where activists…

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Local news website in Ukraine torched, server attacked

New York, February 23, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned last night’s arson attack on the independent, investigative news website Chetverta Vlada (Fourth Power) in Ukraine’s western city of Rivne.

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People cross a road during a heavy snowfall in Kiev, Ukraine in January 2018. Journalists at Media Holding Vesti remain blocked from their newsroom in central Kiev one week after dozens of law enforcement agents raided the office, editor-in-chief Oksana Omelchenko told CPJ. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Week after raid, office of Ukraine’s Vesti remains blocked

Kiev, February 15, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Ukrainian authorities to ensure that journalists at Media Holding Vesti are able to access their office and continue their work without fear of retaliation. Journalists at Media Holding Vesti remain blocked from their newsroom in central Kiev one week after dozens of law enforcement agents raided…

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Workers remove snow during a heavy snowfall in Kiev, Ukraine in December 2017. Ukrainian law enforcement raided the Kiev offices of Media Holding Vesti, which includes Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr on February 8, 2018. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Ukrainian law enforcement raid Vesti offices in Kiev

Kiev, February 9, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Ukrainian law enforcement raid at the Kiev offices of Media Holding Vesti, which includes Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr. More than a dozen masked officers ripped open doors with crowbars, seized property, and fired tear gas in the offices…

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Cars drive on a highway on a sunny winter day in Kiev, Ukraine in January 2017. Igor Guzhva, editor-in-chief of the Kiev-based news website Strana, fled from Ukraine to Austria after receiving death threats, according to a statement published on the site.(Reuters/Gleb Garanich)

Editor flees Ukraine after receiving death threats

Kiev, February 1, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Ukrainian authorities to investigate death threats made against Igor Guzhva, editor-in-chief of the Kiev-based news website Strana. Guzhva fled to Austria after receiving death threats, and amid “unprecedented pressure from the [Ukrainian] authorities,” according to a statement from the editor that was published yesterday…

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Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov, pictured in Moscow in May 2004. Ukraine has arrested a suspect in the murder of Klebnikov, who was editor for Forbes Magazine's Russia edition. (AP/Misha Japaridze/File)

Ukraine arrests suspect in 2004 murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov

Ukraine’s state intelligence agency announced on November 18 that it had detained a man wanted by Interpol for the high-profile murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov in Russia 13 years ago. Russia’s Interior Ministry on November 20 named the suspect as Magomed Dukuzov and said that Ukrainian authorities had apprehended him at its request, according…

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Russia and former Soviet states emboldened by declining press freedom in US, Europe

Receding media freedom in established European democracies and in the United States has emboldened authoritarian governments in Russia and other former Soviet countries to crack down on independent voices at home. I am sharing this information today with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe-known as the Helsinki Commission-and the House Freedom of…

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