In a move that has human rights activists crying foul, Kazakh authorities detained a prominent local journalist Tuesday on allegations that he extorted money from public officials in exchange for favorable coverage.

Montenegrin journalist Jovo Martinovic pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of working with a drug trafficking ring, in a trial decried by international rights organizations as an attack on the press.

Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet - whose reporting had challenged authority from Minsk to Moscow and Kyiv - was killed in an apparent car bomb in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday.

After a two-month trial, the two whistleblowers of the LuxLeak case have been convicted, while the journalist involved was acquitted of all charges.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Following international outcry over the arrests of two journalists in Azerbaijan last week, President Aliyev's advisor Ali Hasanov claimed that the journalists were arrested due to lack of accreditation.

Just two days after the European Games closed in Azerbaijan, four journalists say they were barred from leaving the country and told they were placed on a government “blacklist.” 

Investigative Journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who has been jailed in Azerbaijan since last December, was honored with the prestigious PEN Freedom to Write Award at a gala in New York.

Only one in seven people in the world live in a place where coverage of politics in the media is robust and journalists can work without legal and economic problems, according to a report released by Freedom House today.

Azerbaijani officials linked to human rights abuses should be subject to targeted sanctions by the United States, according to an open letter signed by a group of non-governmental organizations, former diplomats and activists.

Tamas Bodoky, editor-in-chief of the Hungarian media watchdog and independent journalism outlet Atlatszo, has won the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Digital Activism.

International groups are asking Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s representative for human rights, to challenge Azerbaijani authorities this week over the jailing of a number of political activists and journalists.