In Georgia, poetry, a prison visit, and a pardon for Nika Gvaramia
On the road to Rustavi Prison #12, where the only journalist jailed in Georgia is still serving out his 3.5-year sentence, Sofia Liluashvili is speaking to me about poetry. Liluashvili is the wife of Georgian journalist Nika Gvaramia, who spent more than a year behind bars before a pardon by President Salome Zurabishvili led to…
‘Censor yourself or don’t work at all’: Why squeezed Russian journalists are fleeing in droves
Last week, Taisia Bekbulatova, chief editor of Russian independent news site Holod, began frantically looking for plane tickets. Bekbulatova, who is based in Georgia, wanted to evacuate her Russia-based staff after the country passed legislation threatening up to 15 years in prison for the publication of “fake” information about the invasion of Ukraine. “It was apparent that the law was…
CPJ joins call for Georgia to investigate case of exiled journalist forcibly taken back to Azerbaijan
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 22 international rights organizations in calling on Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to ensure that the case of Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azerbaijani journalist living in exile in Tbilisi who is now in custody in the country’s capital, Baku, is fully investigated. CPJ documented last month how Mukhtarli was abducted…
CPJ makes headway in cases in Russia, Georgia
Amid ongoing attacks on journalists, CPJ advocacy in Europe and Central Asia has generated some positive results. Earlier this month, a CPJ delegation met with Russian and European officials, who promised to revisit 17 journalist murders in Russia since 2000. The declared commitment to reverse Russia’s grim record of impunity came after we presented our…
Olympics-China Media Watch: Re-education scrubbed from Web, mostly
Bob Dietz called attention to the Chinese propaganda department’s recent 21-point press directive, first reported by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. The whole thing in English and Chinese is posted today at Berkeley’s China Digital Times. Among the orders given to the domestic media during the Olympic Games is that they are not to report on…
Turkish journalists fired on in South Ossetia
Journalists came under fire in their car on August 10 near Tskhinvali. According to the Turkish Daily News, Turkish journalist Recep Öztürk was wounded. It is not clear who was shooting at them–the lines have been fluid as the Georgians and Russians battle in South Ossetia. At least three journalists have been killed and 10…
Growing concern for the fate of journalists in Georgia
At least three reporters have been killed covering the conflict in Georgia, and two others are reported missing. We are investigating reports today that journalists may have targeted at a press center in the city of Gori, which has been flattened in the Russian bombing campaign.