In an era of explosive global stories and shrinking news budgets, Al Jazeera is the latest broadcaster with plans to create training for citizen journalists.
The tutorials will enable citizens to report on events, especially in areas that are not covered by mainstream media. The network is creating tutorials for citizen journalists focusing on multimedia including Flip cameras and other devices. No dates were announced for the program launch.

«People are at the heart of it,» said a member of the network’s social media team, Esra Dogramaci, during the BBC Social Media Forum. «It is up to us to give them a microphone and amplify their voices. In Syria, for example, we have no correspondents on the ground. We are relying entirely on people to send the content to us to send out.»

Al Jazeera is the latest broadcaster to launch training for citizen journalists. As networks recognize the value of having reporters on the ground when events erupt, they are stepping up training efforts to turn anyone with a mobile phone or a camera into a news provider.

The BBC World Service offered training and equipment for citizen journalists in 2009; other initiatives include Small World News, launched in 2005, which has recently been arming citizen reporters on the ground in Libya with Kodak Zi8 cameras and 6 HTC Wildfire mobile phones.

http://ijnet.org/stories/al-jazeera-launch-citizen-journalism-training

Journalists from developing countries can apply for a UN fellowship.

The Reham Al-Farra Memorial Journalists’ Fellowship Programme, sponsored by the UN General Assembly, gives journalists from developing countries and countries in transition the opportunity to spend six weeks at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Participants take part in briefings, visit major media outlets and travel to Washington, D.C. for meetings at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Candidates must be between the age of 22 and 35, be employed for a recognized media outlet and fluent in English. The fellowship includes flights and a daily stipend to cover housing, meals and other transportation.

To find a list of eligible countries, candidates must contact the United Nations Information Centre or United Nations Development Programme office closest to them. Applicants will be selected in June.

For more information, click here: http://www.un.org/en/media/fellowship/

http://ijnet.org/opportunities/un-fellowship-journalists-developing-countries-worldwide

Recent developments in Kyrgyzstan are displaying the dark side of a free press.

Since Kyrgyzstan embarked on its experiment in parliamentary-style democracy in 2010, a few journalists have made commendable efforts to fulfill the traditional watchdog function of a free press. But such bright spots are being marred by a rise in chauvinistic and racist rhetoric in the Kyrgyz-language press, along with recent violent attacks against journalists.

Addressing journalists at a May 3 celebration of World Press Freedom Day, President Roza Otunbayeva praised her government’s media record: “Freedom of the press is the main achievement of the republic. No journalist has been forced to flee the country, no one has been put to the administrative grindstone, and no one has been attacked,” Otunbayeva said, referring to the period following the collapse [5] of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s administration in April of 2010.

After assuming power, the new government lifted most Bakiyev-era controls [6] on broadcast and print media outlets, launched investigations into prior abuses, and pledged to introduce public control over the main government radio and television broadcasting company. Last month, moreover, parliament approved a resolution that de-criminalized defamation and libel. Although the measure abolished jail terms for those found guilty of libel, it did allow for a steep increase in fines against journalists in civil actions.

Despite such improvements, observers say there are many reasons to remain concerned about Kyrgyzstan’s media environment. For one, journalists are “afraid to write on political issues and often employ self-censorship,” Аlmas Ysman Kalet, an Osh-based freelance journalist, told EurasiaNet.org. Self-censorship became an acute issue after southern Kyrgyzstan was consumed by violent ethnic clashes in June 2010, Kalet said. Hundreds of people, mostly Uzbeks, died in the violence [7].

In recent weeks, many Kyrgyz-language news outlets have explored the extreme limits of editorial freedom, publishing articles expressing chauvinistic and xenophobic views. In one instance of hate-speech, a May 11 commentary published by the Kyrgyz-language newspaper El Sozy [8] — translated into Russian by the gezitter.org website — blamed Jews for most of the country’s current problems.

“Freedom of expression has revealed the other side of the coin; it turned out that journalists are lacking responsibility and professional ethics. Due to increased competition for scandalous materials, journalists are publishing unverified facts. Media outlets are teeming with anti-Semitic views, especially the Kyrgyz-language ones,” said Dinara Oshurahunova, the director of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, in comments carried by the 24.kg news agency on May 3.

“The media can serve evil purposes,” Edil Baisalov, a Kyrgyz civil society activist and Otunbayeva’s former chief of staff, told EurasiaNet.org. “There are many examples when newspapers are exacerbating existing political tensions and casting ethnic minorities as enemies.”

Some of the Kyrgyz-language newspapers containing chauvinistic and xenophobic content are being printed at a publishing house operated by the Media Support Center Foundation (MSCF). The MSCF is a commercial entity that was founded in 2003. Initial funding for the MSCF came from the US State Department. According to the foundation’s website, the MSCF’s Supervisory Committee is headed by Martin Callanan, a member of the European Parliament.

On April 29, the Prosecutor General’s office warned media outlets to stop publishing material that incites inter-ethnic animosity. But the hate-filled articles continue to appear. Many observers suspect that much of the controversial coverage is being encouraged and funded by politicians with an eye on this fall’s presidential election [9].

Economics may be a big part of the problem. The prolonged bout of political instability that began with Bakiyev’s ouster took a toll on many media outlets, causing a precipitous drop in ad revenue. Media outlets in southern Kyrgyzstan were especially hard hit, with most experiencing approximately a 50-percent loss in income. As they struggle to recover, newspapers are especially vulnerable to deep-pocketed politicians and wealthy entrepreneurs, who can offer financial relief in return for desired coverage.

“It is no secret that these days most media outlets represent the interests of powerful politicians. I doubt that journalists will be neutral [during the election campaign]. They will defend the interests of politicians who pay them,” said an Osh journalist speaking on condition of anonymity.

Beyond the profusion of hate-speech and calumny in the press, several suspicious attacks against journalists have occurred in recent weeks. For instance, On May 1, Jyldyz Bekbaeva, a correspondent for Russia’s Interfax news agency, was assaulted in Osh. She is convinced she was not the victim of a random criminal act, but was intentionally targeted because of her professional activities.

Meanwhile, many ethnic Uzbek media representatives in Kyrgyzstan are disgruntled, including Khaliljan Khudaiberdiev, the former owner of Osh-TV who is facing charges of inciting interethnic hostility in connection with last June’s violence. In the wake of the rioting, authorities in Osh shut down Osh-TV and other Uzbek-language outlets. These days, Osh TV is broadcasting again, but mostly in Kyrgyz. Khudaiberdiev maintains that authorities illegally seized the station from him.

In addition, efforts to introduce public control over state media, as promised by Otunbayeva’s provisional government immediately after Bakiyev’s ouster, are encountering resistance from well-connected politicians, Elvira Sarieva, a Bishkek-based journalist and member of the board of the new public broadcaster, OTRK (Obshestvennaya Teleradiokompania), told EurasiaNet.org.

Editor’s note: Alisher Khamidov is a freelance writer specializing in Central Asian affairs.

Alisher Khamidov, EurasiaNet.org

Источник: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63473

BISHKEK — Kyrgyz television journalist Samat Asipov has been hospitalized after a severe beating at the hands of unknown attackers in Bishkek, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Asipov suffered multiple injuries, bruises, and concussion in the attack late on May 11.

Almaz Turdumamatov, a senior producer for the Fifth Channel television company for which Asipov works, told RFE/RL that three individuals attacked Asipov near the Kyrgyz Technical University as he was returning home from work at around 10.00 p.m. Turdumamatov said the attackers did not take Asipov’s wallet, mobile phone, or documents.

«We do not exclude the possibility that the attack was connected with Asipov’s professional activities, because over the last two years he covered parliamentary news and social, economic, and political problems,» Turdumamatov told RFE/RL.

Police in Bishkek’s Lenin district have opened an investigation.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kyrgyz_journalist_hospitalized_beating/24099088.html

Uzbek President Islam Karimov says the popular uprisings in North African and Middle Eastern countries this year have been instigated by «foreign powers» who want to control the region’s natural resources, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.

Karimov, who spoke on May 9 on national television, is the first Uzbek official to comment on the popular revolts that have taken place in such countries as Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and Libya since January.

Many Uzbeks were likely surprised that Karimov raised the issue, because there have been absolutely no reports in the state-controlled Uzbek media about the revolutionary events in the Arab world that have seen longtime rulers such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ousted from power.

Karimov — who is 73 years old and has been president since 1990 — said his conclusion about the revolts was that «the disruption of peace in Arab countries, to incite [the people] against each other, no doubt, it’s not possible without [foreign] influence. This is definitely coming from [the world’s] big powers.»

Speaking on «Memory Day,» Uzbekistan’s version of Victory Day, Karimov said in the interview that he couldn’t believe that in countries with «such great wealth [in natural resources] this kind of disruption, violence, and clashes could occur spontaneously.»

The Uzbek leader went further, aligning the causes of the Arab uprisings with those of the Andijon massacre in southern Uzbekistan on May 13, 2005, when Uzbek security forces opened fire on protesters and killed hundreds.

He noted that Uzbekistan also possesses vast resources of gas, oil, gold, and uranium. «Foreign powers were behind the Andijon uprising, too,» he said.

Karimov once more warned Uzbeks to be vigilant and stay alert for interference by «dark forces» from outside the country and to keep an eye on the younger generations.

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbek_president_says_foreign_powers_behind_arab_uprisings/24097499.html

A panel of journalists and experts at the World Press Freedom Day global conference at the Newseum expressed hope Monday that people would continue to use social media to fight oppressive regimes, despite censorship tactics used by those governments.

Some of those tactics include tracking protests, shutting down social media sites and discrediting bloggers.

“I don’t believe in technologies, but I hope in people,” said Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who is director and webmaster of Prachatai, an alternative news website in Thailand.

Premchaiporn, who faces charges in Thailand for disparaging the Thai monarchy, spoke at a panel titled “New Barriers: Censorship in the Digital Age” at World Press Freedom Day in Washington, D.C.

Premchaiporn faces up to 82 years in prison in Thailand for violating the country’s 2007 Computer-Related Offences Commission Act. Government officials are holding her liable for negative online posts about the monarchy even though she did not make the comments and she removed them as soon as the Thai police notified her of the posts.

Social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, are making it easier for citizens of oppressive regimes to organize protests and expose wrongdoing, said Wael Abbas, founder and blogger for Misr Digital in Egypt. He has gained credibility — and widespread attention—from readers by posting videos of police crackdowns on YouTube.

Poverty is not insurmountable, Abbas and other panelists said. Although only 25 percent of the Egyptian population has Internet access, most people – even in rural areas – have mobile phones. It costs little to access the Internet at cyber cafes, where people download information and share it with others, he said.

The government does not have enough people to monitor the phone calls, Abbas said. Protesters have used SMS texts to relocate protests in real-time to avoid police crackdowns.

Governments, however, also are finding innovative ways to use new media. In China, the government tracks bloggers and posts false information to try to discredit the ones it doesn’t like, a practice used in other countries, said Xiao Qiang, a Chinese expatriate who is director of the China Internet Project at UC-Berkley. The Chinese government has arrested bloggers and shut down Twitter.

Nevertheless, the Internet has provided an alternative source of news, Qiang said.

“People have more of a sense of what they’re not being told,” he said.

The panelists agreed that new media has provided a catalyst for change, but ultimately, people bring about reform.

“Without social media they could have a revolution, but maybe later and in a slower fashion,” Abbas said.

Michael Koma, an audience member and journalist from South Sudan, said that the panelists’ comments might help his country in the future as it wades deeper into social media. Although most of his readers do not have Internet access, they do have mobile phones and already use them to tip him off to stories.

“There is no reason to be pessimistic,” said Koma, who writes for The Juba Post. “I’m hopeful in 10 years time that it [social media] will make a difference.”

You can read more of IJNet’s ongoing coverage of World Press Freedom Day here: http://ijnet.org/topics/world-press-freedom-day

The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organizes World Press Freedom Day commemorations to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom; to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. For complete information on the 2011 World Press Freedom Day global conference in Washington DC, see www.wpfd2011.org (in English).

Susan Schept, IJNET

Источник: http://ijnet.org/stories/hope-survives-government-censorship-panelists-say-world-press-freedom-day

DUSHANBE — A Tajik journalists’ organization has awarded Hikmatulloh Sayfullohzoda a special prize for «journalistic bravery» on World Press Freedom Day, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

The Media-Alliance gave the award to Sayfullohzoda, editor in chief of the weekly «Najot,» founded by the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, on May 3.

Sayfullohzoda was beaten by unknown attackers on February 8 and spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from his injuries. No suspects have been arrested in his case.

A special award from the Media-Alliance was given to Ramziya Mirzobekova, a correspondent for the independent weekly «Asia Plus» who is being sued by Deputy Interior Minister Anvar Taghoymurodov for defamation.

In a show of support for Mirzobekova, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe chose her to attend a World Press Freedom Day event in New York on May 3. World Press Freedom Day is sponsored by UNESCO, the UN’s cultural organization.

In statement released on Press Freedom Day, U.S. Ambassador Ken Gross said Washington is concerned by the continued pressure on Tajik journalists and said the United States hopes the «Tajik government will recognize that the independent media plays a vital role in a healthy, democratic society.»

Meanwhile, Mansur Sayfiddinov, media adviser to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, said the government rejects the recently released report by Freedom House that describes Tajikistan’s media environment as «not free.»

Sayfiddinov told RFE/RL that the several independent media outlets that exist in the country are greater in number than the official press outlets and said they are free to criticize the government.

But Tajik journalists say independent media suffered a big setback in recent months after officials banned a number of newspapers and websites for three months due to «security reasons.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan_press_freedom/24090874.html

As the Internet has increased the free flow of information worldwide, oppressive governments have become adept at using online tools to advance their own agendas.

That is the conclusion of a report titled «The 10 Tools Of Online Oppressors,» released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on May 2.

In an interview with RFE/RL, Danny O’Brien, CPJ’s Internet advocacy coordinator and the report’s author, calls the trend «the darker side» of the Internet. He adds that countries that suppress traditional media also tend to be those seeking to suppress the free flow of information online.

«There’s a very strong match between the sort of freedoms the people have on the Internet and their corresponding press freedom,» O’Brien says. «Online freedoms tend to trail slightly press freedoms, which means that if press freedoms contract in a country — it’s only a matter of time before Internet freedoms also contract.»

Some tactics employed by authoritarian governments are crude and simple, like shutting down all Internet traffic — as deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak did briefly during the final days of his rule.

Others are more sophisticated, like the use of «denial-of-service attacks» in which an Internet server is flooded with a barrage of communication requests preventing it from functioning properly.

Many websites are banned in Iran.And as technology develops, O’Brien says, governments are resorting to ever-more stealthy methods. In China, for example, state monitoring agencies are targeting investigative journalists with spyware sent via e-mail.

«They use names and facts that the journalists know about. They pretend to be from someone they know,» O’Brien says. «And inside those e-mails are targeted pieces of software that can invade and take over those journalists’ computers, spy on what they’re doing, and then relay that to third parties.»

Iranian Regime Learns Quickly

Countries actively deploying online tools to suppress Internet freedom include China, Myanmar, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. But O’Brien says Iran provides the most flagrant example.

During the contested 2009 presidential election, the Iranian government was widely ridiculed for its lack of skill in using the Internet as protesters deftly used Twitter and Facebook to organize antigovernment demonstrations.

But the authorities in Tehran quickly recovered. «In Iran the government very quickly learned that the Internet was a force for opposition protests and independent media but it could be quickly switched around,» O’Brien says. «And now they have a very strong grip on the Iranian Internet.»

Iran and China, he says, have invested considerable sums to upgrade their online infrastructure and have hired additional personnel to monitor the Internet.

Tehran also recently began requiring all websites in Iran to be registered with the Ministry of Culture. Thousands of websites are banned in Iran.

The authorities also use pricing to restrict online access, with the fees for high-speed Internet connections beyond the means of the average Iranian.

Stealth Censorship

In Russia, Belarus, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, the authorities have increased their online monitoring activities and have sought to inhibit the distribution of news and information.

Governments in these regions are also using the Internet to spy on journalists and to incapacitate news websites not controlled by the state. They are also monitoring and disrupting blogs, chat rooms, and online forums that have, until recently, been free of such surveillance.

CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program coordinator, Nina Ognianova, says the authorities are also using cybercrime legislation against independent media sites. Such methods are reminiscent of the use of defamation suits against traditional journalists. They have also become increasingly deft at blocking websites.

«This kind of more insidious — not as direct — censorship has actually proven more effective in muzzling independent voices,» Ognianova says. «When we’re talking about newer forms of censorship, we’re talking about untraceable, intermittent blocking of selected websites. That intermittent blocking is done usually around sensitive political events such as elections.»

Governments usually deny involvement when websites are blocked, citing things beyond their control, like hackers or technical glitches. «Because it’s not traceable or easily traceable, or easily proven — it is highly effective, it is bound to be adopted by other regimes worldwide,» Ognianova says.

O’Brien says smart phones, which are becoming more widely available, are the next target for authoritarian governments as they seek to suppress online freedom and control citizens’ access to information.

«These phones give activists and journalists incredible power: video and upload and reporting from the world’s trouble spots. But it also means that everybody in those countries is effectively carrying a tracking device that can monitor where they are and perhaps even spy on them,» O’Brien says.

«So I think the real big fight between Internet online press freedom and these Internet oppressors is going to be management to keep control of the mobile-phone world.»

Nikola Krastev, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

http://www.rferl.org/content/watchdog_says_governments_better_at_suppressing_online_press_freedom/16

Press freedom worldwide has dropped to its lowest point in more than 10 years, with only one in six people now able to access free and independent media.

The democratic watchdog group Freedom House discovered that sobering statistic while researching its latest annual report, which it is releasing in Washington today, the eve of World Press Freedom Day.

The report, «Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence,» documents what the group calls «significant declines in press freedom» over the past year in several countries, including Egypt, Hungary, Mexico, Turkey, and Ukraine.

It names the Top 10 worst countries for free media — defined as where the press can operate independently and does not face pressure or interference from outside forces — as Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Myanmar, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, and North Korea.

In these states, Freedom House says, «independent media are either nonexistent or barely able to operate, the press acts as a mouthpiece for the regime, citizens’ access to unbiased information is severely limited, and dissent is crushed through imprisonment, torture, and other forms of repression.»

A total of 63 countries were rated «not free» in 2010, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan.

The press is only «partly free» in 65 countries, including Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Of the 196 countries and territories assessed during 2010, just 68 were rated «free.»

Key Trends

In its report, the group identified key trends in the conditions for press freedom around the world.

WORST OFFENDERS
Belarus
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Iran
Myanmar
Cuba
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Libya
North Korea
First, partly democratic and authoritarian countries are increasingly misusing «licensing and regulatory frameworks as a key method of control.» Researchers found that in Russia, for example, denial or suspension of broadcast licenses and the shuttering of media outlets on fabricated grounds is one of the Kremlin’s favorite ways to quash unpopular points of view.

Freedom House also found that authoritarian governments have increased their efforts to control how news is disseminated. Recognizing that information is now being passed via social networking websites, mobile phones, and satellite television, regimes are taking steps to block broadcasting transmission signals — as Iranian authorities have done — and access to websites like Facebook, which Pakistan did briefly and which China has done for much longer.

The group also found many incidents of journalists censoring their own reports or deciding to leave their countries because they fear attacks or harassment. This happened «everywhere from conflict zones to struggling democracies with a weak rule of law,» Freedom House researchers said, noting that it was especially prevalent in Iraq, Pakistan, Mexico, and Indonesia.

Outside Pressures

But even in established democracies, media freedom is under threat, the group found. In places more associated with democracy than oppression — India and Israel, Italy and Hungary — Freedom House documented outside pressures that it said are eroding the ability of the press to operate freely and independently.

In the region encompassing Central and Eastern Europe and Newly Independent States, the press watchdog group says a majority of people — 56 percent — live in media environments that are «not free.» Twenty-six percent live in «partly free» media environments, and 18 percent live in countries where the press is rated «free.»

The group also noted some significant developments in that region.

First, press conditions declined last year overall in Central and Eastern Europe, where the environment for media has generally been favorable and improving.

Second, there was progress in unexpected places. Moldova experienced what the group called a «dramatic opening,» and Georgia and Kyrgyzstan each benefitted from «smaller positive steps» that aided media freedom.

«Kyrgyzstan, although there was a lot of political ferment last year with the change of government and the serious outbreak of ethnic violence, there was a positive reform of the public broadcasting law, there was a decrease in libel suits against journalists, and there were some other positive trends that we saw,» says report editor Karin Karlekar.

«So Kyrgyzstan actually improved, and we hope that under the new government things will continue to improve in Kyrgyzstan. It’s actually a relatively bright spot in the region compared to its neighbors, which, as I said, rank among the worst performers worldwide.»

But Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia remain countries of concern, and the group documented significant negative trends in Ukraine and Hungary, which last year passed a controversial media law that gives the country’s media authority the power to monitor and impose fines on the media for violating «public interest, public morals, or order.»

INDIVIDUAL COUNTRY SUMMARIES

Turkmenistan’s media environment worsened owing to the shutdown of a major mobile-phone service provider, which cut off many residents from outside sources of information, and Iran suffered further declines as a result of blocked satellite television and Internet services.

Journalists in Uzbekistan faced additional repercussions for their work, including a spate of criminal libel prosecutions.

Iraq’s score worsened slightly because the government issued restrictive media guidelines and created a special court to try journalists. Moreover, additional journalists were assassinated, attacked, and jailed without charge, and parts of the country became more dangerous for reporters to work in.

Iran suffered further backsliding in 2010 due to the government’s imposition of additional blocks on the Internet and satellite television, and its decision to restrict funding for antigovernment publications.

The media environment in Russia, which serves as a model and patron for a number of neighboring countries, is marked by the use of a pliant judiciary to prosecute independent journalists; increased self-censorship by reporters; impunity for the physical harassment and murder of journalists; and continued state control or influence over almost all media outlets.

In Azerbaijan, the state and ruling party dominate the media landscape, and independent journalists and bloggers continue to face legal and physical harassment for expressing dissenting views. In 2010, Azerbaijani officials openly disregarded repeated orders from the European Court of Human Rights to release Eynulla Fatullayev, a wrongfully imprisoned journalist.

Despite the Kazakh government’s promises to enact reforms as a condition of its chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010, conditions in Kazakhstan also deteriorated. A spate of libel suits were filed against journalists and authorities implemented a new law designed to increase controls over the Internet.

In one of the year’s largest numerical jumps, Moldova’s score rose dramatically, and was upgraded from «not free» to «partly free» to reflect the new ruling coalition’s steps to increase legal protections for journalists’ rights and reform the regulatory framework. In addition, management at the state broadcaster was professionalized, new private broadcast outlets began operating, and officially sanctioned legal harassment of journalists declined substantially.

Significant gains were noted in Georgia due to an improved political environment that led to a reduction in legal and physical harassment of journalists, fewer instances of official censorship, and more balanced coverage by the public broadcaster.

Despite an outbreak of serious ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan, the country’s score improved to reflect a lack of libel prosecutions and a new public-service broadcasting law. In addition, the interim government, which took power after the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiev in April, lifted bans on RFE/RL and several websites and newspapers.

Ukraine, which has consistently been one of the best performers in its sub-region in recent years, saw an erosion of media freedom in 2010. After pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych took office as president in February, broadcast frequencies were withdrawn from critical outlets and extralegal harassment of journalists increased, leading to greater self-censorship.

By Heather Maher, RFE/RL

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/press_freedom_worldwide_freedom_house/16799961.html

On behalf of the U.S. Embassy, I want to express my congratulations to the people of Tajikistan on World Press Freedom Day. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects freedom of the press, an essential element of a democratic society. To maintain a healthy society, private citizens must be free to express and hear differing opinions and views. Today the U.S. Embassy will launch an initiative to promote journalism for youth throughout Tajikistan. The Embassy will facilitate training that will introduce secondary school students to journalism and allow them to write and publish articles online.

It is also my pleasure to announce that the Embassy has selected Asia Plus journalist Ramziya Mirzobekova to participate in the World Press Freedom Day tour in New York City and Washington, D.C. Mrs. Mirzobekova wrote “Investigation or Inquisition,” an article that documented the case of Usmon Boboyev, a Sughd resident who allegedly died while being interrogated. We believe that it is critical for government officials to vigorously investigate alleged cases of torture and not punish journalists and newspapers who report on the subject. While in the United States, Mrs. Mirzobekova will meet with journalists from all over the world and will interview high-level officials from the White House, State Department, United Nations, and NGOs working on press freedom.

We support media freedom around the world. In Tajikistan, we are concerned about the continued detention of Asht journalist Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov, the ongoing lawsuits against Paykon, and the recent suit against Imruz News journalist Mirzomurod Bozor. We are watching developments in these cases closely and hope that our friends in the Tajik government will recognize that independent media plays a vital role in a healthy, democratic society.

On behalf of President Obama, I reaffirm the United States’ ongoing commitment to media freedom in Tajikistan. The U.S. Embassy works in partnership with the Government of Tajikistan, non-governmental organizations, and members of the media to promote a free and independent media. We have observed time and again that instability results not from too much freedom, but too little freedom. Airing of differences makes a country stronger and is the first step towards building a consensus.

http://dushanbe.usembassy.gov/