According to Ferghana.ru, several journalists who work (or worked) for the Western and Russia-based news agencies were interrogated by the Tashkent City Prosecutor's Office on January 7, 2010.
The Tashkent City Prosecutor’s Office invited Vasiliy Markov, Sid Yanyshev, Abdumalik Boboev, Khusniddin Kutbiddinov and Marina Kozlova to a meeting to discuss their journalistic activities. Vasiliy Markov and Abdumalik Boboev refused to show up without official notice.
It’s interesting that each of the journalists were presented with their own detailed record of articles, biographies and other documents. The representative of the prosecutor’s office informed them that these documents were delivered from the National Security Service (NSS) and the Uzbek Foreign Affairs Ministry.
I totally agree with one of the journalist’s (Andrey Kudryashev) opinion regarding the intimidation by the Uzbek law enforcement. He notes that “I was never the opposition member. However, I see high risk of turning into totalitarian society. Authoritarian rule suppresses the political opponents. Totalitarian regime punishes everyone for counteraction, lack of loyalty, independence and free thinking.”
Journalistic criticism helps to realize mistakes and lacks and is conducive for improvement. Intimidation and corruption will not help the country to bring back its bright history and future.
