AQTAU, Kazakhstan — An independent online television company says two of its journalists were attacked with baseball bats and one of them shot with a rubber bullet in the western Kazakh city of Aqtau, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

Stan-TV deputy chief editor Zhuldyz Toleuova told RFE/RL that correspondent Orken Zhoyamergen and cameraman Asan Amilov were attacked on the morning of October 26 by unknown assailants.

According to Toleuova, four men came out of a white Toyota Prado and attacked the pair as they were leaving an apartment in the city.

«The attackers used baseball bats and shot one of the journalists in the back with a rubber bullet,» Toleuova said. «They then took Orken Zhoyamergen’s notebook and left the scene. Amilov is in very serious condition. He has a serious head injury and his legs are injured. He lost a lot of blood. Zhoyamergen is able to walk and talk.»

Toleuova added that «the journalists were planning to interview local oil and gas corporation officials about the ongoing strike by oil workers in the region.»

In a statement, the Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders called the attack «shocking» and urged the authorities to investigate swiftly and impartially.

Zhoyamergen told RFE/RL by phone that he is not able to talk at the moment. He corroborated Toleuova’s information that Amilov sustained a serious head injury.

Bazarkhan Zhuzbaeva, the Manghystau Oblast Interior Affairs Department’s representative, told RFE/RL that she has no details of the incident.

Toleuova told RFE/RL that the attack is most likely connected with the journalists’ professional activities.

According to her, these two journalists have been covering the ongoing strike by oil workers in Manghystau Oblast since May.

Last month an Almaty court ruled Stan-TV must stop using the antennae on the roof of its Almaty offices because they are endangering the health of nearby residents.

In August, Stan-TV editors Elina Zhdanova and Baurzhan Musirov said the company had been subjected to intrusive inspections because of its independent news coverage.

Stan-TV is funded by fugitive Kazakh businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov, who lives in self-imposed exile in England.

The station — which covers Central Asia in video reports posted on its website — often publishes reports critical of the Kazakh government and some of its officials.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tv_station_reports_attack_on_its_journalists_in_west_kazakhstan/2437204

ASHGABAT — An RFE/RL correspondent jailed in Turkmenistan has been freed under a presidential amnesty, RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service reports.

Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this month after being found guilty of encouraging a relative’s suicide attempt.

Yazkuliyev’s family and supporters said the case was retaliation for his outspoken investigative reporting, including coverage of deadly explosions at a weapons depot near Ashgabat in July, which were downplayed by official media.

The trial and sentence drew widespread condemnation from media-rights groups including Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, and prompted four senior U.S. senators to express their concern in a letter to the Turkmen ambassador in Washington.

An RFE/RL correspondent met Yazkuliyev after he was freed on October 26 and said he conveyed his gratitude to all those who had campaigned for his release.

In a statement, RFE/RL President Steve Korn welcomed Yazkuliyev’s release.

«But, while we are pleased that he is free, RFE/RL maintains that Mr. Yazkuliyev’s detention was invalid and deeply disturbing,» Korn added.

http://www.rferl.org/content/rferl_turkmen_correspondent_freed/24371889.html

DUSHANBE — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has used her first official visit to Tajikistan to reach out directly to the Tajik people and stress U.S. concerns over religious and other rights there.

Speaking to a gathering of intellectuals in Dushanbe before meeting with top officials, Clinton addressed some of the most heartfelt concerns of her audience as she spoke of the importance Washington places on human rights.

«We strongly support the right of Tajik citizens to receive a decent education, to own land, to enjoy a free and independent media, to participate equally in the political process and enjoy all the universal rights that should be available to any man or woman,» Clinton said.

She also said that Washington «strongly believe[s] that fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom, should be protected for all people, young and old, men and women.»

Ownership of land and freedom of religion are among the most discussed aspects of life in Tajikistan, where human rights activists still wrestle with the country’s Soviet past.

Critics accuse the government of tolerating high levels of corruption among officials who use their position to appropriate private land and sell it for gain. The practice not only exacerbates an already critical housing shortage in Tajikistan. It also complicates the government’s own announced program to put more land into the hands of more ordinary citizens so they can farm it to ease the country’s chronic food shortages.

At the same time, the government puts strict limits on religion, with young people under the age of 18 and all women barred from praying in mosques. The secular government says young people are better served by attending school and that conditions in the mosques are not appropriate for both sexes to worship simultaneously. Many Tajiks, however, see the measures as intended to counter the return of religion to the traditionally Muslim country and prevent it from becoming a force for change.

But Clinton did not only speak about personal freedoms. She also spoke of the need for economic development in Tajikistan, one of the poorest of the ex-Soviet republics.

«We want to help increase economic opportunity here in Tajikistan so that so many of your people do not have to leave home to find work, that there can be a flourishing economy right here,» Clinton said. «Now we know that won’t happen overnight, barriers to trade have to come down, foreign investment must be attracted, so the United States is supporting what we are calling the New Silk Road, a network of transit and trade connections to open up new markets for raw materials and energy and agricultural products that can be traded among all the nations in your region.»

Out-migration of labor remains one of Tajikistan’s greatest problems as the domestic economy is unable to support all those who need to work. The most common destinations are Russia or neighboring Central Asian republics, where illegal migrants are frequently subjected to degrading treatment or slave-like working conditions.

Clinton said that critical to economic development are regional approaches that could help to solve Tajikistan’s chronic energy shortages in the winter time and lay a more reliable foundation for economic growth.

«We are working with the Agha Khan Development Network to support new energy, to build an integrated energy grid along the Tajik-Afghan border,» Clinton said. «We want to spur growth, create jobs, invigorate the private sector and fully integrate Tajikistan into the South and Central Asian economy.»

Many Tajiks say their energy problems are compounded by chronic political feuding between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, both of which hold resources the other wants. Tajikistan has ample water sources, while gas-rich Uzbekistan has ample energy. Regional efforts that could increase sharing between the two neighbors, as well as other countries in the region, could help ease the country’s current economic isolation.

Yet if concerns for personal freedom and economic opportunities dominated much of Clinton’s unprecedented townhall meeting in Dushanbe today, they were not the only subjects which elicited strong interest and periodic outbursts of applause from the audience. So did the sensitive question of women’s right in the still very traditional Tajik society.

Asked by a member of the audience whether she feels women have a right to participate in politics, Clinton reminded her listeners of her own personal story as a recent candidate for president in America.

«I think that woman should be given the opportunity to serve in government as officials and ministers,» Clinton said. «Many of you probably may remember I ran for president because I believe women should compete for all positions in the political system of their country. And it was a very hard fought election and President Obama defeated me but I then was proud to go work for him when he asked me to serve in his government. So, I think that it should be a question of personal choice.»

The town hall meeting was attended by several hundred citizens who crowded into the Cultural Center of Agha Khan in downtown Dushanbe to hear the top U.S. Secretary of State.

One attendee, Tajik journalist Abdugaffor Kamolov, told RFE/RL that the message he took home was one of self-empowerment.

«The message that I got from the meeting with the U.S. secretary of state is that all changes must begin within a person, no one else can bring these changes,» Kamolov said. «That is, we ourselves must build our country and our freedom, our independence by our own hands. Nobody will do it for us. Similarly, when you talk with the Americans, they always say that the freedom and independence which they have were created by the efforts of every American.»

Clinton was in Dushanbe as part of a regional tour that already has taken her to Afghanistan and Pakistan. She goes on to Uzbekistan today.

Rights activists have urged U.S. officials to maintain pressure on Uzbek President Islam Karimov to improve his administration’s poor rights record, which has included accusations of the routine torture of detainees and other grave offenses.

Before arriving in Tajikistan on October 21, Clinton visited Afghanistan and Pakistan to urge increased cooperation against militants responsible for attacks on U.S.-led targets in Afghanistan.

with additional agency reporting

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/clinton_pledges_us_support_human_rights_tajikistan/24367751.html

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, welcomed today the release from custody of two Tajik journalists convicted on charges resulting from their professional activities, and called for their acquittal.

“I am relieved that Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov and Urunboi Usmonov were released from custody. However, I remain concerned that they were convicted on criminal charges. Both journalists were sentenced for their independent reporting on issues of public interest and I hope their appeals will be successful and they will be soon cleared of all charges,” said Mijatović.

On 14 October, a court in the northern city of Khojand found Ismoilov, a reporter with the Nuri Zindagi weekly, guilty of criminal libel, insult, extortion and inciting to “regional hatred.” He was sentenced to a 5,400-euro fine and a 3-year professional ban. The court also ruled that Ismoilov, who had been in custody since November 2010, be set free immediately.

Also on 14 October, another court in northern Sugdh Province sentenced BBC reporter Usmonov to 3 years in jail on charges of participation in the activities of a banned organization and ruled that he be amnestied.

Both journalists deny the accusations levelled against them and say they will appeal the verdicts.

“I will continue to follow the cases of Ismoilov and Usmonov and I remain hopeful that they will soon be able to resume their professional activities.”

“I very much look forward to my upcoming visit to Dushanbe to meet with government officials, civil society and media,” concluded Mijatović.

VIENNA, 17 October 2011

http://www.osce.org/ru/fom/83979

New York, October 14, 2011-The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved by today’s release of two Tajik journalists, but condemns their convictions on extremism and insult, among other charges, and calls for the quashing of the convictions on appeal.

The Sogd Regional Court in northern Tajikistan convicted BBC correspondent Urinboy Usmonov on charges of failing to report to the authorities the activities of the banned Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and sentenced him to three years in jail, the independent news website ASIA-Plus reported. The court amnestied the journalist and released him after the verdict, the BBC reported.

A court in the city of Khujand declared Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter with the independent weekly Nuri Zindagi, guilty on separate counts of extortion, insult, and incitement to regional hostility through mass media, and ordered him to pay 35,000 somoni (about US$7,200) in damages to the government officials he allegedly insulted, the Tajik service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The court also banned the journalist from practicing journalism for three years. He was released from custody.

«We are pleased by the release of Urinboy Usmonov and Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, but are still concerned by their guilty verdicts and call for their convictions to be quashed,» said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. «Both journalists must be allowed to report freely, and Ismoilov’s ban on journalism must be overturned.»

Usmonov reported on Hizb-ut-Tahrir activities in Tajikistan for the BBC, which the broadcaster confirmed in a statement after the journalist’s arrest on June 13 on extremism charges. Facing international outcry, Tajik authorities released Usmonov in July, but put him on trial a month later.

Ismoilov was tried in connection with an August 2010 article he wrote for Nuri Zindagi, in which he criticized local government officials for corruption, abuse of office, and mismanagement of funds. Regional prosecutors opened a criminal case against him on charges that included defamation, insult, extortion, and incitement to hatred. He was arrested in November, and faced 16 years in jail.

Usmonov and Ismoilov protested the verdicts, and said they plan to appeal them in higher courts, the regional press reported. Both journalists have been prosecuted on politically motivated charges in retaliation for their work, CPJ research shows.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization
that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.

Press release/ Communiqué de presse

14.10.2011

TAJIKISTAN: Two journalists convicted but free men after trials

Two journalists were free men today at the end of separate trials in the northwestern city of Khujand which Reporters Without Borders had been following closely, but both were convicted on charges directly related to their work.

“We are relieved that the authorities have finally released Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, who had been held in solitary confinement for nearly a year without a thought for his state of health,” Reporters Without Borders said. “But his sentence, like Urinboy Usmonov’s, is unacceptable. These two journalists have already paid too high a price for their independence. They should have been acquitted and even compensated. We fully support their decision to appeal to Tajikistan’s supreme court.”

A correspondent for the newspapers Nuri Zindagi and Istiklol, Ismoilov had been detained since November 2010 in connection with his coverage of alleged corruption by local officials. He was acquitted of embezzlement but was sentenced to a fine of 35,000 somoni (5,400 euros) and a three-year ban on working as a journalist on charges of libel, insult and inciting hatred.

Usmonov, a reporter of the BBC’s Uzbek-language service, was arrested for being in contact with the outlawed Islamist party Hizb-ut-Tahrir in June after covering the trials of several of its members at the BBC’s request. Detained and tortured for a month, he was released conditionally under international pressure. He was sentenced today to three years in prison but was granted an immediate “pardon.”

“Pressure from media freedom organizations in Tajikistan and abroad have had an effect,” Reporters Without Borders added. “But the sentences passed on Ismoilov and Usmonov were harsh and were intended to intimidate all of Tajikistan’s journalists. The judicial system has just saved face. These hypocritical trials have failed to demonstrate its independence.”

Tajikistan is ranked 115th out of 178 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Respect for media freedom is deteriorating rapidly amid an economic crisis and a government “war on terror.”

DUSHANBE — A court in Tajikistan’s northern town of Khujand has freed a journalist who was facing 16 years imprisonment on charges related to his professional activities.

The court, however, barred Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov from journalistic work for three years, and ordered him to pay the equivalent of $7,100 for causing moral damages.

Ismoilov indicated that he will appeal the court’s decision, which was made on October 14.

«I am not entirely happy with this verdict,» he said. «Why do they fine me? What for? Why do they bar me from journalistic activities for three years? Can they silence the mass media? That is not the right thing to do. We serve the people, and therefore our work benefits the government. We were fighting against the prosecutors.»

The 51-year-old reporter for «Nuri Zindagi» («Light of Light), a local weekly in the northern Asht district had been charged with criminal libel and insulting public officials, extortion, and incitement of «regional hatred.» He had been in pretrial detention since November 2010.

Media rights groups maintained that Ismoilov was targeted for criticizing local authorities.

Ismoilov’s case has prompted international condemnations and calls for his immediate release.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said a harsh verdict on Ismoilov would have an «enormous chilling effect» on all other journalists in Tajikistan.

Ismoilov’s case has also garnered attention because it has run at the same time as the trial of a BBC journalist, Urunboy Usmonov, who is accused of ties to a banned Islamist group in a case in which authorities have already acknowledged irregularities.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_journalist_ismoilov_freed_fined/24359816.html

Two journalists were free men today at the end of separate trials in the northwestern city of Khujand which Reporters Without Borders had been following closely, but both were convicted on charges directly related to their work.

“We are relieved that the authorities have finally released Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, who had been held in solitary confinement for nearly a year without a thought for his state of health,” Reporters Without Borders said. “But his sentence, like Urinboy Usmonov’s, is unacceptable. These two journalists have already paid too high a price for their independence. They should have been acquitted and even compensated. We fully support their decision to appeal to Tajikistan’s supreme court.”

A correspondent for the newspapers Nuri Zindagi and Istiklol, Ismoilov had been detained since November 2010 in connection with his coverage of alleged corruption by local officials. He was acquitted of embezzlement but was sentenced to a fine of 35,000 somoni (5,400 euros) and a three-year ban on working as a journalist on charges of libel, insult and inciting hatred.

Usmonov, a reporter of the BBC’s Uzbek-language service, was arrested for being in contact with the outlawed Islamist party Hizb-ut-Tahrir in June after covering the trials of several of its members at the BBC’s request. Detained and tortured for a month, he was released conditionally under international pressure. He was sentenced today to three years in prison but was granted an immediate “pardon.”

“Pressure from media freedom organizations in Tajikistan and abroad have had an effect,” Reporters Without Borders added. “But the sentences passed on Ismoilov and Usmonov were harsh and were intended to intimidate all of Tajikistan’s journalists. The judicial system has just saved face. These hypocritical trials have failed to demonstrate its independence.”

Tajikistan is ranked 115th out of 178 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Respect for media freedom is deteriorating rapidly amid an economic crisis and a government “war on terror.”

http://en.rsf.org/tajikistan-two-journalists-convicted-but-free-14-10-2011,41203.html