Bulgaria halted Wednesday the distribution of a book that slammed several journalists, activists and politicians as "foreign mercenaries" who want to take control of the country with the help of philanthropist George Soros.

Botswana security agents on Wednesday briefly detained and threatened to kill three journalists as they were heading to one of President Ian Khama’s private residences to check whether he was using public funds for renovations.

Kazakh authorities arrested a newspaper editor as part of an investigation into a multi-billion dollar banking scam, but the former head of BTA Bank — which is at the center of the scandal — took to Facebook Monday calling the charges against Zhanbolat Mamay "absurd" and claiming that he never even met the journalist.

Authorities arrested and charged a representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a writer, and an academic with spreading terrorist propaganda after they joined a solidarity campaign surrounding a newspaper that focuses on the conflict between the government and a Kurdish militant group, Bloomberg reported.

Khadija Ismayilova released from prison (Photo: Meydan TV)Journalist Khadija Ismayilova was set free after her final appeal hearing today at the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan two days before her 40th birthday.

With one partner journalist in jail, an online TV channel fighting off criminal charges and collaborators facing daily harassment, surveillance and character assassination in Mafia-friendly media outlets, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) took a pause on World Press Freedom Day to touch base with member news organizations for their reflections.

Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova won the 2016 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize today from behind bars in a Baku prison. The award marks World Press Freedom Day and will be received at an awards ceremony by her mother, Elmira, today in Helsinki, Finland.

Soon, it will have been a year since reporters for OCCRP and other organizations took a long, hard look at what is going on inside Azerbaijan’s prison system.

Kazakh authorities have questioned two journalists, Seytkazy Matayev and his son Aset Matayev, in connection with alleged embezzlement, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Turkey’s main opposition party leader, Sezgin Tanrıkulu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) rebuked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government for the treatment of journalists, reported Turkish daily news site Hurriyet.

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.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has given its Alison Des Forges Award for extraordinary activism to Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who was jailed last December.

The founder and leader of Bulgaria’s ultranationalist party Ataka (Attack), Volen Siderov, and a fellow legislator from the same party were arrested Tuesday in an unprecedented move by the country’s law enforcement.

Talks are continuing over a European Union (EU) directive to protect trade secrets which contains legal provisions that could seriously impede the work of investigative journalists into corporate abuses.

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.

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

A court in Cologne has forced a regional newspaper’s website to unpublish more than 5,000 pages of leaked internal German military reports about Afghanistan, the Balkans and Uzbekistan.

Emin MilliAuthorities in Azerbaijani have detained the brother-in-law of activist-turned-journalist Emin Milli.

Khadija IsmayilovaAs Azerbaijan prepares to launch the billion-dollar spectacle of the European Games, today marks six months since investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was jailed.