A group of journalists and film-makers working for Finnish television was held up at Yerevan airport and denied entry into Armenia on Friday for reasons that the Armenian authorities refused to publicize.

Andrius Brokas, an executive producer at Finland’s YLE public television and radio network, said immigration officials at the Zvartnots international airport refused to issue visas to the four-member TV crew without any explanation.

Read More »RFE/RL: Finnish TV Team Barred From Entering Armenia

Thousands of Turkish journalists took to the streets here on Sunday demanding the release of colleagues in prison and raising the issue of press freedom.

Journalists supported by activists, intellectuals, and some opposition parties marched in central Istanbul.

Some carried banners that read “Freedom to journalists”, “No to wire tappings,” and “Justice right now,” an AFP photographer reported.

The photographs of arrested colleagues and murdered journalists were carried along side newspapers with headlines on press freedom.

The European Parliament in a resolution on March 9 also criticized Turkey for deteriorating freedom of the press.

Source: http://www.google.com/

Read More »Turkish Journalists Protest Over Arrested Colleagues

On Mar. 10, an international group of journalists and film producers heading to Armenia for an international documentary project was stopped at Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport by Armenian border security guards with no explanations. Later, all members of the group were denied entry visas to Armenia. The group was comprised of Finnish, Lithuanian and Estonian filmmakers working on a documentary film project called “Souls of the Ghost Town” on the difficult path of conflict resolution in the war-affected Caucuses, according to a release issued by the project’s executive co-producer, PC “TV Komanda” producer Andrius Brokas, and disseminated by the Lithuanian Journalists’ Union.

In Armenia the filmmaking consortium was to conduct face-to-face interviews with officials as well as peace-makers under the general theme of “Armenia: Past, Present and Future” dispatched by “YLE,” the national Finnish broadcasting company. The production is part of a larger documentary project which includes independent research of the Khojaly mass killings. The project was intended to present a balanced approach through the eyes of witnesses and people involved in the conflict on both sides, as well as independent international observers.

Read More »ePress. Four EU Filmmakers, Journalists Locked in Yerevan Airport

Azerbaijan has arrested five young democracy activists for trying to organise a nationwide day of protest in the ex-Soviet state through the Facebook social network, the opposition said yesterday.

The “Great People’s Day in Azerbaijan,” called for tomorrow, is an attempt by activists in the tightly controlled Muslim-majority country to latch on to the mood of revolt sweeping through the Arab world.

However the authorities have made clear they will not tolerate even small-scale unsanctioned protests and have arrested leading activists on what the opposition claims are spurious charges.

“A campaign of young activists’ arrests is under way. The authorities are using illegal methods to suppress the opposition,” Isa Gambar, the leader of the opposition Musavat party, said.

He said five young activists, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, Sakhavat Soltanli, Jabar Savalan, Dayanat Babaev, and Rasadat Akhundov, have been arrested so far, under “ridiculous accusations of hooliganism,” such as speaking loudly on the telephone in a public place.

Hajiyev, who was sentenced on March 4 for one month in prison, has already been arrested twice in recent months. Babayev, an activist from the opposition National Front party, was arrested on Monday, followed by the arrest of his fellow Soltanli and independent activist Akhundov on Tuesday.

Read More »Democracy Activists Held In Azerbaijan

The family of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, assassinated in 2007, has given its support to two prominent journalists who were arrested at the weekend in connection with an alleged coup plot.

The arrests of Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık has sparked widespread anger among press circles and nongovernmental associations. Journalists protested their colleagues’ arrests Sunday in front of the courthouse in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, joined by Dink’s brother Khosrov Orhan Dink, who waited with the rest of the group until the first morning light to learn the court’s decision and offer his support to Şener and Şık.

Dink’s wife, Rakel Dink, also visited Şener’s wife in order to give her support.

Şener previously faced trial for a book he wrote about the Dink murder case, in which he was accused of “making targets of civil servants,” “obtaining secret documents” and “exposing secret documents.” He was acquitted on all charges in June 2010.

In his column in daily Posta on Feb. 25, Şener wrote that there were threats made against him after it was revealed that police accused of negligence in Dink’s murder were also involved in the Ergenekon inquiry.

Turkish journalists’ organizations on March 6 visited the homes of two reporters to show their support for their colleagues’ families and protest their arrests in an alleged coup plot.

Read More »Dink Family Supports Journalists Arrested In Turkey

On March 9, Wednesday, in Tekali village, which is situated on the border of Georgia, Azerbayjan and Armenia, “The Caucasian Peacekeeping Initiative Center” (Armenia), “Union of Women for Civil Rights” (Azerbaijan) and “Tekali Association” (Georgia) with the financial support of the American Fund of Democracy Support, organized hearings on theme “Medation of Georgia in Solving Armenian-Azeri Conflict: Where to Start From?.”

Politologists Georgi Khutsishvili made a report for the mediation of Georgia in that conflict, and Mamuka Areshidze made a report against. Representatives of NGOs, media, Abkhazia and South Osetia were also present on the event.

Besides many journalists from Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan took part in the discussion.

Source: www.1news.az

Read More »Armenian, Azeri and Georgian Journalists Meet in Georgia

Ten journalists of Armenian origin who were killed in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire will be added to a list of slain journalists in Turkey by the Ankara-based Contemporary Journalists Association, or ÇGD. The association will hold a ceremony April 24, the date when some countries commemorate the alleged Armenian genocide in Ottoman lands.

The newly added names include Krikor Zohrab, a lawyer, author and three-time deputy in the Ottoman Parliament; Taniel Varujan, a renowned Armenian writer; Rupen Zartaryan, Siamento (Atom Yarjanian) and six others, all also pioneers of western Armenian literature. 

The 76-name list of journalists killed in Turkey before and after the foundation of the Turkish Republic includes well-known figures such as Abdi İpekçi, Çetin Emeç and Uğur Mumcu, but previously contained only one Armenian name: Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent who was assassinated in Istanbul in 2007.

When asked whether the ÇGD is worried about the potential response to adding the Armenian journalists to the list, Abakay said: “I wish we had the information before and has taken this radical step before. We, the Turkish people, unfortunately do not know anything but what the official history has told us. The truth was hidden from us.”

Read More »Ottoman-era Armenians Added To List Of Slain Turkish Journalists

Blogger, journalist, and human rights activist Zhila Baniyaghoob was arrested along with her husband, Bahman Amouyi, in the postelection crackdown. She was released on bail; her husband remains in prison.

Baniyaghoob wrote the following post to mark the anniversary of their arrest:

A year ago, on a night like, this they rang the bell of our neighbors and said: “We are the relatives of the unit next to you. Their bell is out of order. Please open the door for us.” Our neighbor opened the door for them without knowing that they’d come to arrest us. It’s always like this! They always arrest people in similar fashion.

When I was released from prison, our neighbor was too ashamed to say hello for a long time because she had opened the door to those who took Bahman and I to prison. Why was she ashamed?! I told her those who lied to you and fooled you should be ashamed.

It was on a night like this when Bahman, who had been beaten up by batons and was exhausted, had come home before me and gone to bed. When I came home, he told me, “Zhila, bring me a cup of hot tea and please also give me the hot-water bottle so that I put it on my bruises.”

Read More »Iran: The Difference Between Jailed Journalists and Their Interrogator

Seven journalists have been arrested by police investigating an alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government.

They were among 10 people detained as part of an official inquiry into Ergenekon, an ultra-nationalist clandestine group accused of trying to launch a coup against the government headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Among those under arrest is Nedim Sener, named last year as an International Press Institute (IP) world press freedom hero. He works for the daily newspaper Milliyet. 

IPI director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: “No journalist should face arrest, charges, imprisonment or any other form of harassment or intimidation for doing their job… We urge the authorities to release all of the journalists imprisoned because of their work.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk

Read More »Seven Journalists Arrested In Turkey

The president of “Asparez” journalists’ club in Gyumri Levon Barseghyan intends to publish a new daily in two months. According to him, compared with the capital which has a great number of print dailies, the regions are deprived of this kind of medium for more than 20 years. And he considers necessary to restore the tradition of newspaper reading in the mornings.

“For many times I have applied to different donors, explained, asked and convinced them to provide support for printing, to fund the establishment of printing-houses. Today we hope that there will be funding, and finally we’ll have our printing-house in our city,” explains Levon Barseghyan.

Barseghyan expects the support of both local and foreign donors. He says that if there is no support they will try to print the newspaper by their own efforts. According to Barseghyan, financial support has already been promised, but since there is no contract yet he does not wish to name the supporter.

By the calculations of “Asparez” club, an investment of $80,000 is necessary for the project. This sum does not include the editorial current expenditures which will be about $4,000 per month, according to Barseghyan.

Read More »Restoring the Tradition: Gyumri-based “Asparez” Want to Publish a Daily