AUG. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili pulled his TV station Channel-9 off the air. Mr Ivanishvili had said he wants to distance himself from media ahead of a presidential election in October. Channel-9 had been strongly critical of Mr Ivanishili’s rival, the incumbent Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)
JULY 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three months before a presidential election, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev gave 155 journalists apartments in a new Baku housing block. Critics of the president said the move was a crude effort to manipulate the media.
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(News report from Issue No. 145, published on July 29 2013)
JULY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The number of people using the internet in Azerbaijan has doubled in the last five years, local media reported quoted the information ministry. Officials said roughly 70% of the population now use the internet. Internet accessibility is an important indicator of economic and political development.
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(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After pressure from human rights groups, the Turkmen authorities released Rovshen Yazmuhamedov, a reporter for the US-funded internet and radio media group Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Police detained Mr Yazmuhamedov earlier in May. Reasons for Mr Yazmuhamedov’s detention were never made public.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Kazakh officials of illegally detaining Aleksandr Kharlamov, a journalist, holding him in a psychiatric unit and falsely accusing him of inciting religious discord. HRW said Mr Kharlamov, from north-east Kazakhstan, was detained in mid-March.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Turkmenistan arrested Rovshen Yazmuhamedov, a reporter for the US-funded media group Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Human rights groups said Mr Yazmuhamedov could potentially be tortured in detention. The Turkmen authorities have not responded or specified the charges against Mr Yazmuhamedov.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ahead of a presidential election in October, parliamentarians in Azerbaijan passed a law that makes defamation on the internet a crime punishable with a prison sentence. Human rights groups criticised the move as political and said it effectively criminalised free speech on the internet.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU is worried about a clamp-down on the internet ahead of an election in Azerbaijan later this year, Stefan Fule, the EU’s commissioner for enlargement, said after meeting Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Mr Fule also said a deal to improve visa arrangements between the EU and Azerbaijan was nearing.
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(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
APRIL 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kyrgyzstan arrested the Uzbek editor of a newspaper in the south of the country for alleged involvement in the murder of a man during ethnic fighting in 2010. The arrest of Muhammadsoli Ismoilov, editor of Ush Sadosi, triggered a protest by Uzbeks who have complained of police bias and maltreatment.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s embassy in Bishkek issued a terse statement criticising a proposal to cut broadcasts of Russian-language programmes from its ORTK channel. The Kyrgyz government said it was spending too much money on broadcasting ORTK shows but a decision to halt programmes could damage relations with Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)