US Center for Defense Journalism reports on press freedom

The report notes that the situation on freedom of media improved last year, the Center told the APA.

"Nevertheless, countries like Russia and Venezuela try to control media and impose a censure. In some CIS countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan there are cases of violence of journalist rights," the report reads.

The report also stresses that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev considered the assassination of Elmar Huseynov, editor-in-chief of local "Monitor" journal, as a crime against the government and terror act.

The report underlines the detention of three Azeri journalists- Sakit Zahidov, Samir Sedagetoglu and Rafig Tagi.

55 reporters were killed last year. 32 of them were killed in Iraq, 6 in Afghanistan and Philippine. According to the information for December, 134 journalists are in prisons of 24 countries.