News from Poland, Armenia, India

IPI condemned violent attacks by Armenian police on journalists seeking to cover efforts to disperse street demonstrations in Yerevan and called on authorities to hold officers involved accountable. “Reports that scores of accredited journalists were beaten and detained, and their equipment destroyed, at the direction of senior police officials are shocking and absolutely unacceptable,” IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis said.

IPI expressed dismay at the second murder of a journalist in India this month and urged the country’s government to ensure that those responsible for the deaths are brought to justice. Sandeep Kothari, a journalist from the Madhya Pradesh state, was found dead Saturday night after having been kidnapped late on Friday. Police arrested three local youths and said they had admitted to murdering the journalist, setting him on fire and burying him. According to the police, the accused have ties to illegal mining in the area, a topic Kothari covered.

A group of international press freedom organisations completed a three-day high-level mission to Spain, where a controversial new law on public security is set to take effect on July 1. In a series of meetings in Madrid, the group, led by IPI and including representatives from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Madrid-based Platform for the Defence of Free Expression (PDLI), as well as independent legal and regulatory experts, urged Spanish political parties to include key press freedom issues in their platforms ahead of national elections scheduled later this year.

IPI joined a coalition of international press freedom organisations in calling on Burundi’s president to take steps to improve media freedom ahead of upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. The groups urged President Pierre Nkurunziza, who is seeking a third term in office in a poll scheduled for July 15, to allow shuttered media outlets to reopen and operate without interference.

IPI urged German authorities to release Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour, a well-known Egyptian television presenter, who was arrested at Berlin's Tegel airport as he was about to board a flight to Qatar.