Europe & Central Asia

  
A Turkish man in a 'freedom for journalists' T-shirt is thrown out of a press conference for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on September 28. (AP/Michael Sohn)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 27, 2018

Erdoğan in Germany A Turkish man wearing a “freedom for journalists” T-shirt was thrown out of a press conference between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on September 28, video from Euronews and Özgürüz showed. The man was identified as Adil Yiğit, chief editor for the Turkish language news website…

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CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon talks about global press freedom violations during a Press Behind Bars panel at the U.N. (Reuters)

CPJ’s Joel Simon speaks at Press Behind Bars panel

Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon addressed a panel event at the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 28, 2018. The event highlighted global press freedom violations and the jailing of journalists in countries around the world, with a specific focus on cases in Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh,…

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Live Stream – Press Behind Bars: Undermining Justice and Democracy

Event scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, September 28, 2018. Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon, Reuters President and CPJ board member Stephen J. Adler, and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who represents the imprisoned Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, speak on a panel at the 73rd…

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German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel, pictured with his wife Dilek before the M100 media awards in Potsdam on September 18. A Turkish court this week rejected a compensation case for Yücel's wrongful arrest over his year-long detention. (AFP/John MacDougall)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 20, 2018

Journalists jailed Police on September 24 briefly detained and questioned Ergün Demir, chief editor of Akatos Haber, a local news website in northwestern Kocaeli province, the leftist daily Birgün reported.

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The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Exiled journalist Emin Huseynov filed a complaint to the court that argues Azerbaijan stripped him of his citizenship in retaliation for his critical views. (AFP/Frederick Florin)

CPJ submits amicus brief to European Court on Azerbaijani journalist Emin Huseynov

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with the organizations International Media Support, IFEX, and the International Senior Lawyers Project submitted an amicus curiae brief to the European Court of Human Rights in support of a legal complaint by Azerbaijani journalist and human rights advocate Emin Huseynov.

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Turkish police make arrests during a protest over labor conditions at Istanbul's new airport on September 15. AFP photographer Bülent Kılıç, who took this image, was among those detained. (AFP/Bülent Kılıç)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 14, 2018

Court finds journalists guilty of making propaganda for terrorists A court on September 19 found the directors of the shuttered socialist television channel Hayatın Sesi TV guilty of making propaganda for terrorist organisations, the daily Evrensel reported.

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A Turkish flag waves over the Bosphorus strait as Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is seen in the background, on July 22, 2018, in Istanbul. (AFP/Ozan Kose)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 10, 2018

Turkey detains Austrian writer Austrian citizen Max Zirngast, a contributor to several magazines and a student of political science, according to the OSCE, was detained by anti-terrorism police in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, on September 11, Deutsche Welle reported. Deutsche Welle quoted a tweet of German magazine re:volt–one of his employers–as saying that Zirngast was taken…

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Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, pictured in Brussels in December 2017. CPJ is joining calls for Sweden to ensure human rights are upheld in EU negotiations on surveillance equipment exports. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

CPJ joins call for Sweden to uphold human rights in EU regulation on surveillance equipment exports

The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to Annika Ben David, Sweden’s ambassador-at-large for human rights, as part of a coalition of eight other civil society organizations.

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People hold Turkish flags during a ceremony marking the 96th anniversary of Victory Day, commemorating a decisive battle in the Turkish War of Independence, in Ankara on August 30, 2018. (AFP/Adem Altan)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of September 3, 2018

Journalists in court The prosecutor in the trial of imprisoned journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, who is charged with “revealing information regarding state security that is supposed to be secret for espionage proposes,” asked the 26th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes for a life sentence, the daily Evrensel reported on September 6. Ilıcak attended the hearing via…

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Riot police detain Emine Ocak, a member of Saturday Mothers group, during a demonstration on August 25, 2018, in Istanbul. Turkish police assaulted reporters at the August 25 protest. (AFP/Hayri Tunc)

Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of August 27, 2018

Police assault reporters in Istanbul Turkish police violently attacked several reporters trying to cover a weekly silent protest, known as the Saturday Mothers, in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square on August 25, the New York Times reported. The reporters, alongside activists participating in the protest, were attacked by the police during the 700th vigil for those who…

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