Aug 11, 2009

Oppressed Journalist Roundup


Oh former Soviet Union, are there any rights you won't trample on?

Kazakhstan (Reuters): Ramazan Yesergepov, the owner and editor of Alma Ata Info newspaper, was sentenced to 3 years in prison this week for publishing a letter he said revealed the links between a businessman and the National Security Committee (KNB). He had been arrested for this in January. Kazakhstan, which had pledged to liberalize laws before taking on the OSCE chairmanship in 2010, has said this year it would not fully implement legal reforms recommended by the OSCE.

Azerbaijan (Reports Without Borders): A Baku court today rejected another complaint by detained bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hadji-Zadeh, this one accusing the interior ministry, the prosecutor’s office and the Baku police of failing to respect the principle that a person is presumed innocent until proved guilty. They have been in jail for two months for political satire, basically.

Daghestan (RFE/RL): Malik Akhmedilov, a leading correspondent for the daily newspaper "Hakikat" (The Truth) -- published in the Avar language -- was found dead in a car on the outskirts of Daghestan's capital, Makhachkala. He had been recognized for his investigative articles about the unsolved assassinations of high-ranking officials in the volatile Russian republic.

1 comment:

Julianne said...

Very helpful piece of writing, much thanks for this article.