National Association of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT), the Union of Tajik Journalists, Bureau on Human Rights and Legality, the Memorial Fund of Tajik Journalists, the Tajik Media Alliance, and the Public Unit «Khoma» came up with an initiative to reform the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan «On Printing and Other Mass Media».
This initiative has found support from the International Freedom of Speech Fund «Adil Soz» (Kazakhstan), and by international organization IFEX.
Representatives of various media were not allowed to attend a public meeting held on 16 October in Khatlon province.
Journalists say that Information-Analytical Unit of the President’s Office had preliminary invited certain media to the meeting.
However, on 15 October the same Unit’s officials informed the journalists that representatives of some media are not allowed to attend the meeting, referring to the decision assumed by National Security Committee.
Only editors of three provincial government newspapers and correspondents of the First State TV Channel were allowed to attend the meeting.
NANSMIT monitoring service.
Representatives of various media were not allowed to attend a public meeting held on 16 October in Khatlon province.
Journalists say that Information-Analytical Unit of the President’s Office had preliminary invited certain media to the meeting.
However, on 15 October the same Unit’s officials informed the journalists that representatives of some media are not allowed to attend the meeting, referring to the decision assumed by National Security Committee.
Only editors of three provincial government newspapers and correspondents of the First State TV Channel were allowed to attend the meeting.
NANSMIT monitoring service.
A press conference scheduled for 16 October 2007 in Vose district was cancelled due to another public meeting in Kurgan-Tube city attended by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon.
Chairman of Vose district Alimurod Tagaimurodov accompanied by a group of officials left for the administrative center, Kurgan-Tube city to attend the meeting.
However, the head of the State has nothing to do with the cancelled press conference since the date of his visit had been known well in advance, and the Khatlon province chairman’s press service presented an unconsidered schedule of press conferences to be held in the province.
This is not the only failure of the province’s press service. A meeting between the Kulyab municipal administration with the media had been scheduled for 12 October (which was the final day of the sacred month of Ramadan; it should be noted that 95 percent of Tajikistan’s population are Muslims who wanted to properly celebrate the Reverence Day).
The press conference in Vose district was postponed for 25 October; and in Kulyab for 27 October.
NANSMIT monitoring service.
The leaders of former Soviet states signed a bevy of agreements during three separate inter-state gatherings held recently in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. Despite the move toward greater integration on paper, it remains uncertain to what extent the agreements will be implemented.
The main event in Dushanbe was the Commonwealth of Independent States summit on October 5. In all, the summit produced 17 agreements. Among the most prominent deals signed were a framework for the regulation of labor migration, and a pact aiming to promote the civil rights of migrants. Other agreements were designed to stimulate free trade among CIS states.
On October 6, two separate meetings occurred – a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Security Council, and a summit of Eurasian Economic Cooperation (EEC) organization.
During the CSTO gathering, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered member states an incentive to tighten security cooperation, announcing that Russia was prepared to sell advanced military hardware to neighboring states at «Russian domestic prices.» In return for discounted arms sales, Moscow expressed a desire for other CSTO member states – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – to take a more active role in international peacekeeping. The CSTO chief, Nikolai Bordyuzha, suggested that a CSTO peacekeeping force could be deployed in the separatist Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. «Peacekeeping forces will act according to a verbal agreement with the United Nations, and will be used according to decisions made by the [CSTO] council,» Bordyuzha said.
In addition, the CSTO signed a cooperation agreement with another regional institution – the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, of which Russia and China are the leading members. Overall, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are members of both groups. The agreement would appear to enhance China’s security leverage in Central Asia.
«The documents signed in Dushanbe give a very serious impulse to the development of the organization [CSTO],» Bordyuzha said.
The EEC leaders, meanwhile, agreed to establish a fully functioning customs union by 2011. Three states – Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – will be the founding members of the customs union. Three other states – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – intend to join the union after meeting various accession conditions. Participants are now expected to establish a commission on customs regulations, and harmonize trade-related legislation.
Putin hailed the results of the Dushanbe meetings as a significant step forward for inter-state cooperation. «We have made a principally new step in the development of the processes of the post-Soviet area,» Putin said.
For all the agreements, however, the three meetings in Dushanbe proved that it is impossible to satisfy all CIS member states. Azerbaijan, for example, expressed concern on October 8 that Russia’s offer to sell discounted weapons could be exploited by Armenia to engage in an arms build-up that would complicate the search for a Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. «We hope that Russia will take into account all sensitive issues while taking these kinds of steps,» Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said during a news briefing in Baku.
Meanwhile, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared that the CIS had not served Georgia’s interests, and refused to sign a development concept paper.
Even Tajikistan, the host for the meetings, suffered its fair share of disappointment. Tajik President Imomali Rahmon pressed his fellow CIS leaders to explore agreements on sharing increasingly scarce water resources. Rahmon’s initiatives did not gain traction, however. Only Kyrgyzstan, which like Tajikistan, is a primary source nation for water supplies, strongly backed Rahmon’s call for the establishment of a water-use framework. Uzbekistan, another of Tajikistan’s neighbors, is believed to oppose the initiative.
The inability to cooperate on water usage could soon emerge as a regional security issue in Central Asia, said Tajik scientist Sabit Negmatullayev, a former president of the Tajik Academy of Sciences. «To ensure its energy security, Tajikistan intends to build two hydropower cascades on the Vakhsh River (in central Tajikistan) and on the Zeravshan River (in the North of the country),» Negmatullayev said. «The downstream countries, whose populations grow rapidly, [i.e. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan], suffer from seasonal shortages of water so badly needed for irrigation. Having appropriate agreements in place, we could ensure stable discharge of water in the region, i.e. a fair distribution of precious resources, which are seen very often as a potential bone of contention.»
Editor’s Note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance journalist based in Dushanbe.
Источник: www.eurasianet.org
Tajik Press Review, 4 October 2007
Press review in Russian is available at: [url=http://www.nansmit.tj/publish/?id=118]http://www.nansmit.tj/publish/?id=118[/url]
Tajik politicians complain that the popular Russian TV show “Nasha Russia” (“Our Russia”) defames the national dignity of Tajiks. Among the characters of the TV serial are two Tajik labor migrants have become an object of derision.
However, nobody intends to dramatize the incident. So far, there has been a proposal to organize a meeting with representative of the Russian TNT channel, the host of the TV show for an amicable settlement.
The TV channel administration considers this situation absurd. In October, the TV company intends to launch the third season of “Nasha Russia”. The script writers and actors will present new funny characters, but they are not going to forget about the old ones.
The Tajik characters (heroes of the scandal) – Jamshut and Ravshan – will be presented in a new quality; they will refurbish an apartment of Kseniya Sobchak (a Russian show business celebrity).
According to Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe, Mirek Topolanek, Prime Minister of Czech Republic in his public speech called on the global community to strengthen international pressure on Russia.
Topolanek made his statement on 4 October, during a press conference at RL/RFE office in Prague. The meeting was dedicated to the memory of Anna Politkovskaya, a famous Russian journalist, correspondent of “Novaya Gazeta”, who was murdered on 7 October 2006 in Moscow.
The Czech Prime Minister also noted that the outcomes of investigation on the journalist’s murder will clarify the real situation in Russia in the sphere of media and freedom of speech.
NANSMIT monitoring service
According to Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe, Mirek Topolanek, Prime Minister of Czech Republic in his public speech called on the global community to strengthen international pressure on Russia.
Topolanek made his statement on 4 October, during a press conference at RL/RFE office in Prague. The meeting was dedicated to the memory of Anna Politkovskaya, a famous Russian journalist, correspondent of “Novaya Gazeta”, who was murdered on 7 October 2006 in Moscow.
The Czech Prime Minister also noted that the outcomes of investigation on the journalist’s murder will clarify the real situation in Russia in the sphere of media and freedom of speech.
NANSMIT monitoring service
The Khujand city court accepted an action by Makhmudjon Dodoboye, founder of a private newspaper “Sughd” against the former editor of this newspaper, Abdumajikdi Bobodjoniyon.
M. Dadabayev, the climant informed the NANSMIT monitoring service that he required Mr. Bobodjoniyon to return the newspaper’s property, which the former editor had illegally sold.
According to the court verdict, Bobodjoniyon must return to Makhmudjon Dodoboye, the newspaper’s founder, the amount of 5,660 Somoni (about $1,650).
NANSMIT monitoring service