State media

The website of Russian state news agency Sputnik has been blocked in Turkey, according to its Turkish editor-in-chief.

“There is no access to sputniknews.com and sub-domains from Turkey. We’ve sent a letter to the regulatory agency asking for the reasons. We were not expecting a ban at all,” Mahir Boztepe told Reuters.

Al Jazeera America was set to sign off on April 12 after a costly and failed effort to break into the US cable news market.

Croatian satirists will gather in a park in the centre of Zagreb on April Fool's Day on Friday to raise their voice in the defence of political satire and freedom of speech.

Croatian Radio-Television, HRT, on Wednesday axed the satirical show "Montirani proces" ["Framed Process") from the schedule.

The program management of HRT said in a press release that "part of the script mentions content that is inappropriate for broadcasting" and collides with HRT's "mission, values and principles.

Bulgarian satellite services provider NURTS has concluded a partnership deal with Eutelsat Communications to help Bulgarian public television BNT broadcast its cultural and news channel to Europe.

Eutelsat will use the Eutelsat 7B satellite to broadcast BNT World over Europe, NURTS said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

The United States, Russia and China top the list of the most powerful countries in the world, according to a survey published by US News & World Report.

At the same time the United States, Russia and China are the leading nations in the Global Firepower (GFP) database, which measures potential conventional military strength, Sputnik reported.

The latest data ahead of the 10th anniversary of Montenegro's independence shows that 13 countries have not yet recognized it.

The website of Montenegro's state broadcaster RTCG described these countries as "mostly exotic."

A false bomb threat targeted the traditional concert on New Year's Eve on the Alexander Battenberg square in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

This was announced by the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Friday.

the French AFP agency has included Russian President Vladimir Putin on its list of most influential persons in 2015, Sputnik reported.

The list is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and followed by Putin, and Pope Francis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a document Nov. 28 slapping sharp economic sanctions on Turkey that include banning Turkish employment in the country following Ankara's downing of a Russian jet, according to the Kremlin press service.