Watchdog

The media-freedom representative for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says the situation for reporters in Ukraine has reached a dangerous stage.

Dunja Mijatovic spoke to reporters on April 16 after making a three-day trip to Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kyiv, where she spoke with journalists from those regions as well as with reporters from Donetsk, Mykolayiv, and Crimea.

She said journalists in Ukraine's conflict areas are "under attack, both physically and as part of ongoing psychological warfare."

Mijatovic said: "Journalists in conflict areas face violence, seizure, and destruction of equipment, and threats on a daily basis."

She said journalists in Crimea, the Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia in March, must contend with additional problems such as re-registration, possible eviction from the region if they are deemed as disloyal and do not obtain Russian citizenship, threats, and denial of access to public information.

Mijatovic urged journalists in Ukraine to have solidarity, and to "report the truth and to stay safe."

ASTANA -- Police in the Kazakh capital, Astana, have dispersed a public protest by some 30 local residents who demanded proper compensation for their property, which they say was confiscated by local authorities.

A total of 27 protesters, including 12 children, were detained by police, forcibly placed on buses, and later released on April 11.

The protesters gathered in front of the Prosecutor-General's Office demanding to meet with Prosecutor-General Askhat Dauylbaev.

Protesters said city authorities paid low compensation after seizing their private land and demolishing their houses in areas used to construct new buildings for Nazarbaev University and other state buildings in Astana.

After the protesters refused to meet with Dauylbaev's representatives inside the building and demanded to see him personally, police arrived and the protesters were forcibly taken away.