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 The annual report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been released titled “Attacks on the Press in 2011”.
The report notes mass violations of the rights of journalists in Syria, Belarus, Azerbaijan.

According to CPJ official website four years after Eynulla Fatullayev was imprisoned on a series of fabricated charges, and more than a year after the European Court of Human Rights ordered his immediate release, the editor finally walked free. In an interview with CPJ, Fatullayev praised the international community for its sustained support. Attacks against domestic journalists covering sensitive subjects continued with impunity. Freelance reporter Rafiq Tagi, who wrote critically about Islamist politics and government policies, died after being stabbed on a Baku street. Two reporters for the pro-opposition newspaper Azadlyg were beaten in reprisal for their work, while the editor of the independent newspaper Khuralwas jailed in late year on retaliatory charges. Hostility toward international reporters was on the rise: Members of a Swedish television crew working on a human rights documentary were deported; a U.S. freelancer and a British researcher were assaulted; and a photojournalist was denied entry based on her Armenian ethnicity.

The fatal stabbing of Tagi in November underscored a year of heightened violence against local and international journalists. Amanda Erickson, a U.S. freelance contributor to The Washington Post and The New York Times, and Celia Davies, a British staffer at the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety, were attacked outside their Baku apartment building in June. Ramin Deko and Seimur Khaziyev, reporters for the pro-opposition Azadlyg, were beaten 10 days apart in early spring. And assailants targeted the home of Idrak Abbasov, a journalist with the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety, in September. The attacks are unsolved.