Jehovah’s Witnesses in Tajikistan are expecting a verdict from the Supreme Court on their appeal of the decision that terminated the religious group’s activities in the country, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

Yury Toporov, a spokesman in Moscow for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, told RFE/RL that the organization filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in December and, according to the law, a review of the appeal must be made within two months of the filing.

Toporov said the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses was legally registered in Tajikistan in 1994.

But the Culture Ministry banned the religious group’s activities in Tajikistan in October 2007 because the group’s literature attacks other religions, its members actively proselytize, and they have prayer meetings in their homes rather than designated buildings.

On September 29, 2008, a trial judge in Dushanbe dismissed an application by the Jehovah’s Witnesses asking that the Culture Ministry’s decision be overturned. An appeal was also dismissed by the Supreme Court’s Military Collegium in February 2009.

Toporov told RFE/RL: «In fact, Tajik authorities say their country is a modern country respecting all the religious groups and confessions and therefore we believe that Jehovah’s Witnesses will be allowed to gather and to preach their faith in Tajikistan as they used to do before. That would correspond to international standards and Tajikistan’s international obligations.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/Banned_Jehovahs_Witnesses_Appeal_To_Tajik_Supreme_Court/1950502.html

“Independent Tajik media have become more courageous; they attracted attention of citizens to acute social problems, such as corruption and inefficiency of government agencies. This is an explanation to the growing trend of filing legal cases against the media by the authorities”, — said Muhiddin Kabiri, chairman of the Tajik Islamic Renaissance Party.

Kabiri interpreted the actions of officials as “a certain pressure on the media, whereas the latter apply very strong censorship towards themselves”.

“It is obvious that the authorities decided to organize a “united front” [against the private media], since it is not in their interests to make their shortcomings public – when the society learns what’s going on within these [government] structures”.

The political leader advised representatives of “the fourth power” to unite and protect their own interests. “There have been cases when certain journalists or media had to confront the government bureaucracy alone. Some officials feel confident that they can easily intimidate the media, especially private outlets”, — he added.

Kabiri also says that in this situation journalists should publish more audacious articles, since “withdrawal means weakness, which would further stimulate pressure from government officials on the media”.

Asia Plus

With parliamentary elections fast approaching, print journalists in Tajikistan are coming under increasing pressure, media watchdogs say.

The pro-presidential People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT) is widely expected to retain its hammerlock on parliament in the February 28 elections. Even so, media rights groups contend that President Imomali Rahmon’s administration is trying to muzzle media outlets not directly under the government’s control.

«There is clearly an all-out drive to intimidate news media and get them [independent media outlets] to [self-] censor their coverage of state authorities,» the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders said in a February 1 statement.

There are no daily newspapers in Tajikistan. Of late, independent-minded weeklies have had to cope with the possibility of financial devastation via lawsuits. The Reporters Without Borders statement noted one January 26 case in which a court awarded «astronomical damages» in a suit against the weekly Paykon (Arrowhead) for a report on corruption. «Such high awards threaten the publication’s survival and, therefore, the diversity of the country’s news media, which is already very limited,» the statement said.

More recently, two Supreme Court judges and one judge from the Dushanbe City Court have brought libel suits against three independent weeklies stemming from reports in the publications about corruption in the judicial system, the Asia-Plus news agency reported on February 1. The plaintiffs are seeking approximately $1.2 million in «moral damages,» and for the newspapers’ operating licenses to be suspended while the hearings proceed.

Opposition parties in Tajikistan are in disarray and are not in position to mount a serious challenge to the PDPT in the upcoming voting. But Muhiddin Kabiri, chair of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party, was quoted by Asia-Plus on February 2 as saying that the government remains wary of the ability of independent outlets to draw attention to «acute social problems, such as corruption and the inefficiency of government agencies.»

«This explains the growing trend of filing legal cases against the media by the authorities,» Kabiri added.

Critics have also pointed to legislation, adopted last fall, which potentially imposes onerous fees to obtain information from official sources. Specifically, the legislation, titled «On the order of payment to government agencies for the provision of information,» requires journalists to pay roughly 10 cents per page for official documents obtained from government employees. The charge ostensibly covers the costs of printing.

Nuriddin Karshibaev, chairman of the National Association of Independent Media in Tajikistan, contended, in an interview with EurasiaNet, that the law violates the Tajik constitution, which guarantees access to information. At the same time, he noted that the legislation wasn’t being enforced.

«So far, there haven’t been any conflicts between the authorities and journalists applying for official information,» said Karshibaev. «Nobody has been asked to pay for any requested data. If such a thing occurs, I believe, our colleagues would bring in a lawsuit against the government agency [that requested payment for information].»

Makhmudkhon Saraev, a representative of the Tajik president’s office, insisted the legislation would not prompt government officials to charge money for interviews. «The government resolution mainly concerns the use of archive materials, whereas oral information must remain free of charge,» Saraev said during a recent roundtable discussion in Dushanbe.

Lidia Isamova, a Tajik journalist and media expert, saw nothing sinister in the legislation. Given that the government is facing a severe budget crunch, it’s not unusual that it would see to reduce expenses in any way possible, Isamova suggested. «Somebody has to pay for paper, printer ink, Xerox equipment, etc,» Isamova said. «I don’t think that any official would try to make a fortune out of such services, and no journalists would be overcharged for it».

What seems to have angered journalists most about the adoption of the legislation was the way in which it was promulgated. «Everything goes in a reverse order,» said one journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, referring to the legislative process. «A law is first adopted, and then [the public] starts discussing it.»

Editor’s Note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance journalist based in Tajikistan.
Posted February 5, 2010 © Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org

Konstantin Parshin, EurasiaNet

Источник: http://eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav020510a.shtml

«The Tajik authorities must stop using the judicial system to harass independent news media», Reporters Without Borders said today in reaction to an appeal court’s decision to uphold an astronomical damages award against a news weekly and the announcement of new lawsuits against a total of four leading newspapers.

The damages award of 300,000 somoni (49,000 euros) against the weekly Paykon (“Arrowhead”) was confirmed on 26 January by a Dushanbe court. The newspaper had been ordered to pay this amount on 26 October in a libel suit by Tajikstandart, a government agency that monitors the quality of imported goods.

Last summer, the newspaper published an open letter to President Emomali Rakhmon from a number of businessmen accusing Tajikstandart of corruption and incompetency. Although the agency was accorded the right of reply, it nonetheless brought the legal action claiming that the letter’s authors had used false names.

“Tajikistan’s defamation law should be amended to ensure that damages awards are proportional to the resources of the media concerned,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Such high awards threaten the publication’s survival and therefore the diversity of the country’s news media, which is already very limited.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Aside from the flawed legislation, a new tendency is emerging in the lawsuits that have been brought against the country’s leading independent newspapers in the past few days. With just weeks to go to parliamentary elections on 28 February, there is clearly an all-out drive to intimidate news media and get them to censor their coverage of state authorities.”

The official newspaper Khovar reported on 28 January that the agriculture ministry has brought a libel suit against the leading newspaper Millat (Nation) in which it is demanding 1 million somoni (165,000 euros) in damages. When contacted by Reporters Without Borders, editor Zohir Davlat refused to comment until he received formal notification of the suit.

But he said he was surprised because the offending report, published last December, was “short and purely factual, referring to investigations into corruption within the agriculture ministry that were carried out and published by parliament.” The ministry was accorded the right of reply in this case as well.

Libel actions were brought the next day against three other leading newspapers – Asia-Plus, Ozodagon (“The Independent”) and Faraj – by three supreme court judges and a judge based in the Dushanbe district of Sino over their coverage of a conference about corruption and bias within the Tajik judicial system. The suits demand a total of 5.5 million somoni (900,000 euros) in damages.

One of the plaintiffs, supreme court judge Nur Nurov, has even requested that the newspapers be closed pending the outcome of the case. It is ironic that President Rakhmon himself lambasted the work of the supreme court and prosecutor-general’s office in a recent cabinet meeting.

A Tajik journalist based in Europe told Reporters Without Borders that the lawsuits could be the result of contradictory signals from the government in recent months. The press was emboldened by a meeting between the president and media representatives last autumn and had started publishing more critical articles.

Serving as a reminder that it is dangerous to criticise the authorities, the current lawsuits appear to signal the end of the détente. The journalist also pointed out that, in a February 2009 decree, President Rakhmon had explicitly encouraged government officials to bring actions against news media that criticised them.

Paykon has not been particularly critical of the government since its launch last March although its editor, Jumaboy Tolibov, used to upset the authorities with his investigative reporting and was beaten and given a two-year jail sentence in 2005.

Tajikistan’s last parliamentary elections led to a crackdown on the media and it seems that history could be in the process of repeating itself.

http://www.rsf.org/Officials-bring-libel-actions.html