Europe & Central Asia

New York, January 7, 2008--Kazakh authorities should immediately release Ramazan Yesergepov, ailing editor of the independent weekly Alma-Ata Info, who was seized from an Almaty hospital on Tuesday by government agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

We issued the following statement in reaction to the car bomb explosion this morning outside the offices of EITB, a public radio and television broadcaster known for its balanced news coverage with headquarters in Bilbao, the main city of Spain's Basque Country. The bomb exploded at around 11 a.m. after a warning call from the armed separatist group ETA tipped a fire brigade, EITB reported on its Web site. The broadcaster's premises had been evacuated; no deaths and one minor injury were reported, The Associated Press said...

We issued the following statement after Azerbaijan's National Council on Television and Radio announced today that it would discontinue the local licenses of international broadcasters Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and the BBC as of January 1, 2009...

New York, December 23, 2008--Russian authorities should promptly investigate the attack on Zhanna Akbasheva, a correspondent for the Regnum news agency in the republic of Karachai-Cherkessia, in Russia's North Caucasus, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, December 22, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists is incensed by the violent attack on journalists covering a Sunday demonstration in Vladivostok, the regional capital of Primorsky Krai in Russia's Far East. 

New York, December 18, 2008—For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history.

We issued the following statement after the state broadcaster in Kyrgyzstan said it would not carry programming by the popular Kyrgyz-language service of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty unless all content was cleared in advance with the government...