Reporters Without Borders Concerned About Journalists Who Were Sacked and Harassed For TV Censorship Protest

Two journalists protest in central Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan

Two journalists working for public television Yoshlar, Saodat Omonova and Malohat Eshankulova, were dismissed on December 9, 2010, three days after they demonstrated against censorship and corruption at the TV station, in a square in central Tashkent.

Reporters Without Borders expressed concern for their safety, since following their sacking they are still being harassed and intimidated both by their former employer and the security services.

These two journalists alerted their fellow citizens and colleagues to an endemic ill within the country: the censorship of public media. In a country as repressive as Uzbekistan, it was an act of courage, the worldwide press freedom organization said.

We hope that nothing worse happens in the coming weeks. And we will be vigilant. Uzbek journalists are too often victims of official and judicial persecution, frequently in violation of the law, underlining the lengths to which the authorities will go to silence all those who oppose the system.

Human rights activists, who took part in the demonstration in Mustakillik square in the capital, were arrested but the journalists were left alone. But three days later, the TV station’s management fired them on the grounds that they had organized an unauthorized demonstration and damaged the image of the authorities, both criminal offences.

Omonova and Eshankulova received a phone call on December 14, 2010, summoning them to the TV station's premises the following day to take part in a meeting of the station’s trade union committee and to discuss their situation. Neither of the journalists was able to attend because they were in Samarkand and both of them were unwell. The station’s management went so far as to check they were actually being treated at the hospital in Samarkand. Even more worrying, members of state security went to the hospital to check the two journalists’ records going back several years.

Uzbekistan is one of the world’s most repressive countries in terms of press freedom, ranked 163rd out of 178 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2010 world press freedom index. At least 11 journalists are currently in prison.


Link to the site: http://en.rsf.org/uzbekistan-two-journalists-sacked-and-23-12-2010,39150.html

Uzbekistan Lacks Religious Freedom

Historic Kukeldash mosque entrance in Tashkent 

Respect for religious freedom continues to decline in Uzbekistan according to the 2010 U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report.


Respect for religious freedom continues to decline in Uzbekistan according to the 2010 U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report.  U.S. Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner said Uzbekistan remains a country of particular concern along with Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

The 1998 Uzbek religion law restricts many rights only to registered religious groups and limits which groups may register.  Since 1999, no Baptist church has successfully registered, and since 2000, four Baptist churches have lost their registered status.  Violators of the law's prohibition on activities such a proselytizing, importing and disseminating religious literature and offering private religious instructions are subject to criminal penalties.  

Authorities in Karakalpakstan reportedly ordered Christian books, including the Bible to be destroyed following raids on Christian meetings.  In the last year, the Uzbek government has also raided Baha'i services.  

In the majority Muslim country of Uzbekistan, the government continues to ban Islamic organizations it considers extremist and criminalizes membership in them. Among the banned organizations are "Akromiya," Tabligh Jamoat, and groups the government broadly labels Wahhabi.  In practice Nur, a Turkish Muslim group, is also considered a banned organization.

An estimated 141 members of Nur were convicted during the last year, with sentences ranging from six to 12 years.  Three high-profile crimes that occurred in summer 2009 prompted police to arrest hundreds of alleged religious extremists. Although some were arrested in connection with the crimes, many others were arrested solely for membership in banned religious groups.  Outside the country, views of Nur's ideology range from progressive to conservative, but the group has consistently condemned violent extremism.

The United States believes religious freedom is a fundamental right that should be respected by all governments, including Uzbekistan.  As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We want to see religious freedom available universally.  And we want to advocate for the brave men and women who around the world persist in practicing their beliefs in the face of hostility and violence."


Link to the article: http://www.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Uzbekistan-Lacks-Religious-Freedom-112197764.html

36 Jailed On Religious Charges in Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, Ferghana Region alone sentenced 36 people to lengthy prison terms on religious charges between January and September 2010 and more people are awaiting trials in the region.

The press center of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan said that all 36 people had been charged with membership of banned religious groups, such as the Hizb-ut Tahrir Islamic party, the Nurchilar, Wahhabi and other movements.

The initiative group learnt from the lawyers and relatives of the convicts that their charges had been trumped up and they had faced threats and torture during investigations.

The charges included attempt to overthrow Uzbekistan’s constitutional order, producing and distributing materials threatening public security, establishing, running and taking part in banned religious organizations.

They all were found guilty and were given prison terms of 5.5 to 14 years.

The group said 32 more people were being investigated on similar charges in Fergana Region.

Link to the article: http://uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=hot&cid=30&nid=15859

CPJ Reports Number of Jailed Journalists Hits 14-Year High Worldwide

From Africa to the Americas, more journalists are imprisoned today than at any time since 1996. (AFP)

On December 8, 2010, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a special report on jailed journalists worldwide.

According to the report, relying heavily on vague antistate charges, authorities jailed 145 journalists worldwide. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan are also among the worst jailers of the press.

Iran and China, with 34 imprisoned journalists apiece, are the world’s worst jailers of the press, together constituting nearly half of the worldwide total. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan round out the five worst jailers from among the 28 nations that imprison journalists.

“The increase in the number of journalists jailed around the world is a shocking development,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “It is fueled largely by a small handful of countries that systematically jail journalists—countries that are at war with information itself.”

Uzbekistan placed fifth on CPJ’s dishonor roll, with six journalists jailed on December 1. The detainees include Jamshid Karimov, the president’s nephew, who is being held involuntarily in a psychiatric facility in reprisal for his critical coverage of the government’s social and economic policies.

“The legal justification for jailing journalists varies from country to country,” said Simon. “But the motivation is nearly always the same: to crush those who challenge the authority of the state.”

More about this report at: http://cpj.org/reports/2010/12/cpj-journalist-prison-census-iran-china-highest-14-years.php

Uzbekistan and Internet Censorship

Officials pose in OSCE summit in Kazakhstan

While member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) gathered for the first two-day summit in 11 years in Astana, Kazakhstan, an independent online news media outlet Uznews.net published an article which outlined some significant points related to the censorship of the Internet in Uzbekistan.

According to Chapter 7, Article 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, “Everyone shall have the right to seek, obtain and disseminate any information, except that which is directed against the existing constitutional system and in some other instances specified by law,” but this fundamental right is regularly abused within the country as the authorities block access to web sites that contain information that goes against the official line.

This basically contradicts the Constitution's take on censorship. According to Chapter 15, article 67 “The mass media shall be free and act in accordance with the law. It shall bear responsibility for trustworthiness of information in a prescribed manner. Censorship is impermissible.”

Reporters Without Borders places Uzbekistan in its list of 12 “Enemies of the Internet” among other freedom abusers such as North Korea, China and Iran. Its report accuses Uzbek government of “massive censorship of politically oriented content” and highlights a long list of “sensitive” topics such as corruption among officials and criticism of the government that can result in web sites being blocked.

In a 2007 report, the OpenNet Initiative stated that “Among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, Uzbekistan is the undisputed leader in applying Internet controls”.

“Uzbekistan’s control of the Internet embodies the most pervasive regime of filtering and censorship in the CIS. It stands in stark contrast to the government’s official enthusiasm for information communications technology (ICT) development and the Internet,” the report added.

Since attacks in Tashkent in 2004, blamed on Islamic militants, and the Andijan massacre in 2005, Internet censorship has been stepped up as the regime seeks to keep tight controls on the information citizens can access.

The authorities in Tashkent regularly block independent news web sites in Uzbekistan including Uznews.net, ferghana.ru and uzmetronom.com. The web sites of opposition political parties and human rights groups are also blocked. In July of this year, the web site of the Expert Working Group, a Tashkent-based think-tank, was blocked in Uzbekistan.

Whilst the constitution enshrines the right to freely access information, the Uzbek authorities introduced legislation in 2002 that sanctioned restrictions to protect its citizens from the effects of negative information being disseminated via the Internet. Tashkent has used its compliant, state-controlled media to spread the message of the necessity of censorship to combat undesirable web sites that run stories contrary to the official news.

According to “The Enemies of the Internet 2010” report compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Uzbekistan has “opted for such massive filtering” that its netizens “have chosen to practice self-censorship”.

Filtering of web sites is carried out by UzPAK, Uzbekistan's National Information Transmission Network and it is believed that the Uzbek National Security Service is responsible for keeping an eye on the Internet and making sure that Internet Service Providers are enforcing the rules. Private email and chat rooms are also kept under close surveillance.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are increasingly being used to spread content from banned web sites and this has led to occasional blocking of these platforms. Facebook was temporarily inaccessible in October, 2010, after it was used to spread an article on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders which ranked Uzbekistan 163 out of 178 countries monitored for their record on suppression of the media.

Internet cafés are also subject to monitoring and spyware is thought to be widely used. Notices in Internet cafés warn users against accessing prohibited web sites and the café owners face having their licence revoked if the connection is used to visit “anti-constitutional web sites”. Sites are also blocked on mobile Internet networks.

According to the Uzbek Agency for Communication and Information, there were around 6.3 million Internet users, roughly a quarter of Uzbekistan's population, as of July 1, 2010. As the number of netizens in Uzbekistan continues to grow each year, ensuring free access to the whole of the Internet takes on increasing importance as a way to counter the isolationist stance of the Uzbek authorities.

The OSCE called upon governments in Central Asia to “refrain from adopting new legislation and/or ammending legislation to restrict the free flow of information on the Internet” at the 12th Central Asia Media Conference held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in May 2010.

One of the OSCE's basic commitments is to “foster the free flow of information” and the Internet is recognized as a great resource for ensuring this freedom is upheld.


Link to the article: http://uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=top&cid=3&nid=15805

Hillary Clinton Tours Central Asian Countries – Attends OSCE Summit in Kazakhstan

Hillary Clinton arrives to Kazakhstan

On December 1, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, started the diplomatic tour of Central Asian countries by attending summit meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital.

Also, many heads of government and top foreign affairs officials from across Europe are attending the summit, which is the first top-level meeting of the 56-nation group in 11 years. The group had not gathered since a summit in 1999 in Istanbul. 

The secretary’s next stop is Kyrgyzstan which has been site to considerable political upheaval in recent months. This spring, violence in the small Central Asian republic forced its president Kurmanbek Bakiev to flee to Belarus while the interim government subsequently struggled to hold on to power. Also, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced as a result of the unrest in southern Kyrgyzstan because of ethnic tensions, which the Kyrgyz government blamed ex-president and his son in instigating these tensions. As a result of the ethnic violence, hundreds were killed, thousands injured and more than 2,600 homes destroyed.

Clinton also will visit Uzbekistan, the most populous republic in Central Asia but also less democratic, for the first time in her nearly two years as secretary of state. The country where elections have never been fairly judged by international observers and the executive branch wields most actual power. Dissidents are persecuted. Opposition parties are not allowed to exist and foreign media have been driven out of the country.

Clinton urged the president, Islam Karimov, who has been in power since 1990, “to demonstrate his commitment through a series of steps to ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms are truly protected.”

The State Department has stated that the Clinton's visit to Uzbekistan as a chance to promote political reform, but it also an opportunity to affirm security cooperation. Uzbekistan is one link in what the United States call their Northern Distribution Network which brings supplies to Afghanistan through Russia and the different  states of Central Asia.

According to the New-York based Human Rights Watch, Clinton should use her impending visits to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to promote concrete human rights improvements.

• In Kyrgyzstan she should call for a thorough and impartial investigation into the violence in April and June 2010, fair trials for defendants in cases resulting from the violence, and improved security around the court hearings.
• In Uzbekistan she should call on the government to free wrongfully imprisoned human rights defenders and journalists and to end repression of civil society.

“Clinton’s meeting with Karimov is a chance for the US to set the record straight on the need to respect rights,” said Rachel Denber, acting Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Urging the Uzbek government to release imprisoned human rights defenders is a good place to start.”

Human Rights Watch also called on Clinton to urge the Uzbek government to allow the unimpeded operation of nongovernmental organizations, both domestic and international; issue invitations to the eight UN special rapporteurs who have requested access; guarantee freedom of speech and of the media; and implement the conventions against child labor, including by allowing the International Labor Organization to conduct independent monitoring during harvest season.