Lithuanian parliament members urged on Wednesday the Azeri government to respect the human rights of two detained journalists and allow international monitors to observe their cases.

The chief editor of a newspaper in the Siberian city of Minusinsk was shot dead in a killing that authorities said Thursday they believe may be connected to his work.

Javier Valdez Cardenas, a well-respected Mexican journalist who covered drug trafficking and organized crime, was murdered in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa on Monday, media reported.

Miroslava Breach, 58, a Mexican journalist who specialized in organized crime and corruption, was shot eight times in her car Thursday morning as she pulled out of her drive in state capital Chihuahua to take her son to school.

An appeals court in Uzbekistan upheld the conviction of the brother of a Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist on a drug possession charge Wednesday, the latest step in a press crackdown that has seen independent media targeted in “trumped up” criminal cases.

Three imprisoned journalists in Azerbaijan—Khadija Ismayilova, Gilal Mamedov, and Parviz Gashimli—demanded amnesty from the government, according to their lawyers as reported on the Caucasian Knot and Meydan TV.

A Baku prosecutor demanded a guilty sentence and 7 years imprisonment for journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov, a correspondent for the Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo, reported Caucasian Knot.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has issued a call to the Bulgarian Prime Minister to protect reporters at investigative journalism center Bivol, an OCCRP partner based in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Hungarian Publishers’ Association has condemned a plan proposed by the Ministry of Interior that would allow secret agents to be planted in media bureaus across the country.

An Azerbaijani journalist will be paid compensation after repressive government practices violated his human rights.

The High Court in Podgorica has sentenced a prominent former athlete to a 19-year prison term for his involvement in the 2004 murder of a celebrated chief editor of Montenegro's highest-circulation daily newspaper.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned an apparent smear campaign against Atanas Chobanov, editor of the Bulgarian investigative reporting website Bivol.bg, an OCCRP partner.