DUSHANBE — Tajikistan’s Supreme Court has sentenced an official with the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party (HINT) to 14 years in prison. 

Sherik Karamkhudoev was found guilty on May 10 of founding an organized criminal group, organizing mass disorders, and illegal weapons possession.

Karamkhudoev, 46, was the chairman of the HINT branch in the troubled eastern province of Gorno-Badakhshan.

He was arrested in July during a military operation against armed groups in the province.

Karamkhudoev denied taking part in the fighting, and his party called his arrest politically motivated.

The HINT is the only Islamic party that is officially represented in the parliament of a post-Soviet country.

The military operation followed the killing of regional security chief Abdullo Nazarov.

In February, two men from Gorno-Badakhshan were sentenced to 16 and 17 years in prison for killing Nazarov.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-islamic-party-karamkhudoev/24982290.html

TURKMENABAT, Turkmenistan — An RFE/RL correspondent based in Turkmenistan’s northeastern city of Turkmenabat has been detained by local police. 

Rovshen Yazmuhamedov, 30, has worked for RFE/RL since September 2012.

His reports have focused mainly on social issues.

On May 9, Yazmuhamedov’s relatives informed RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service that he had been detained three days earlier.

«[Rovshen] left from home at around 2:30 p.m. on May 6, saying he would come back soon. Then he did not return,» his mother, Parcha Yazmuhamedova, explained. «I waited for him until 2:30 a.m. He did not come back in the morning either, then I received a call from them. A prosecutor was calling and asking for his passport. He said ‘Rovshen is with us.’ They told me to bring a copy of his passport. [Once there] I was waiting outside for a while, then they called me in. Rovshen was there, they showed him to me.»

Authorities have not given any explanation for Yazmuhamedov’s detention.

According to the relatives, the journalist is being held at a detention center run by the Interior Ministry’s Directorate No. 6, which is mainly involved in investigating organized crime and terrorism-related cases.

The relatives tell RFE/RL Yazmuhamedov has been interrogated by Turkmenistan’s security services several times in the past.

In the meantime Yazmuhamedov’s mother said authorities were installing monitoring devices around the family’s home.

«They have been installing [cameras around our house] since morning. I don’t understand why they are doing this?» Yazmuhamedova said.

RFE/RL correspondent Ogulsapar Muradova was detained in June 2006 and convicted of weapons possession charges that August at a closed trial that lasted some two hours.

Muradova was sentenced to six years in prison, but in September 2006 her family was informed she had died in custody.

A government autopsy, whose results were never released to the family or made public, reportedly found that Muradova died from blows to the back of her head.

Turkmenistan is one of the most isolated countries in the world. The government greatly restricts foreigners’ access to the country and the ability of its citizens to travel outside the country.

All media in the country is state-controlled and it remains difficult to obtain information from outside media sources.

http://www.rferl.org/content/turkmenistan-rferl-correspondent-detained/24981293.html

U N I T E D   N A T I O N S                                             N A T I O N S   U N I E S

THE Secretary-General

Message On World Press Freedom Day

3 May 2013

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a cornerstone of good governance, sustainable development, and lasting peace and security.

Yet every day around the world, journalists and media workers are under attack.  They face intimidation, threats and violence from governments, corporations, criminals or other forces that wish to silence or censor.

The theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day, “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media”, highlights the need for action to upholding the right of journalists to carry out their vital work.

From traditional media platforms such as radio, print and television, to newer and more and more popular social media, blogs and citizen-led reporting, journalists are increasingly at risk.

Over the past decade, more than 600 journalists have been killed – at least 120 in the past year alone.  Hundreds more have been detained.  The dangers are not only physical: from cyber-attacks to bullying, the powerful are deploying numerous tools to try to stop the media from shedding light on misrule and misdeeds.

These are individual tragedies; collectively, they are an assault on the right of all people to the truth.  I am especially concerned that so many of the perpetrators escape any form of punishment.

The United Nations system has established a Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.  The plan aims to raise awareness and to support practical steps to create a free and safe working environment for journalists.

As we mark World Press Freedom Day, let us pledge to do our utmost to enable all journalists in all media to do their jobs.  When it is safe to speak, the whole world benefits.

On the 20th anniversary of World Press Freedom day, the EU pays tribute to journalists worldwide who dedicate their lives — sometimes at great personal cost — to reporting events or expressing views that many might prefer to silence.

A free, independent and vibrant press is indispensable in any democratic society.  The EU is determined to fight for press freedom worldwide and condemns the increasing level of intimidation, violence and censorship that journalists face in many countries. The EU calls on all governments to allow journalists to work in safety and security, and without the fear of censorship or prosecution.

Freedom of expression must be defended both in the traditional media and on the Internet.  The EU will continue to promote freedom of expression on-line and offline, not least as new information technologies can be key in promoting human rights and democracy.   The EU will continue to condemn violations of the right to freedom of expression in all media with a view to ensuring that journalists across the world can discharge their professional duties without hindrance.

May 3 marks the 20th annual World Press Freedom Day, aimed at calling attention to the fundamental right to freedom of expression and threats to it. 

May 3 was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day by the UN General Assembly in 1993. Freedom of expression is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked the day on May 2 at a conference in New York. He said international cooperation under UN supervision is necessary to protect journalists from attacks.

«The violence we condemn today highlights the relevance of the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity,» he said. «The plan and its recently adopted implementation strategy aim to promote collaboration among governments, regional human rights bodies, nongovernmental organizations, media organizations, and the UN family.»

Ban also highlighted the importance of media freedom for democracy and human rights.

«All journalists, across all media, need to be able to do their jobs,» he said. «When it is safe to speak, the whole world benefits.»

ALSO READ: Sound Bites Aside, Azerbaijanis Have Little To Celebrate This Press Freedom Day

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has, meanwhile, released its annual list countries where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.

The 2013 Impunity Index is led by Iraq, which the CPJ says «has the world’s worst record on impunity,» with 93 cases of journalists killed over the past 10 years in which no one was convicted. The vast majority of those killed — 95 percent — were local journalists.

Iraq is followed by Somalia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, and Brazil.

The CPJ says that although no journalists have been murdered in Afghanistan since 2008, authorities «have shown no progress in pursuing suspects in the five unsolved cases over the past decade.»

The CPJ also noted Pakistan’s failure to prosecute a single suspect in the murders of 23 journalists over the past decade and said that five journalists were murdered in 2012 alone.

Russia comes ninth in the index, with 14 unsolved murder cases since 2003. The CPJ says journalists in the North Caucasus have been the most vulnerable in recent years, highlighting the case of Kazbek Gekkiyev, a state television anchor working in the region who was shot dead in December 2012.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International, in a report released to mark the day, said Syrian rebels and regime forces are both responsible for killing, arresting, and torturing scores of journalists.

With reporting by AFP and AP

http://www.rferl.org/content/world-press-freedom-day/24975281.html

The media freedom representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has criticized Azerbaijan for not living up to its commitments to decriminalize defamation. 

Dunja Mijatovic made the statement while attending events to mark World Press Freedom Day in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose.

Mijatovic said Baku pledged to decriminalize defamation in 2006 but that the government has recently proposed amendments that «go in the opposite direction.»

She said she was also concerned by a proposal to include «all publicly accessible online resources» in the proposed law.

The government and family of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev have been the subject of numerous media reports alleging nepotism and corruption, including some based on online corporate registration records.

http://www.rferl.org/content/osce-azerbaijan-defamation/24974994.html

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WASHINGTON — Media freedom throughout the world declined last year to its lowest point in almost a decade, according to a new report from Freedom House, a U.S.-based democracy monitoring organization. 

The group’s annual “Freedom of the Press” report was released on May 1 in Washington, D.C.

Project director Karin Deutsch Karlekar says the findings show «negative trends in most regions of the world.»

North Korea and Turkmenistan tied for the title of the worst country for media freedom, with Uzbekistan and Belarus close behind.

Karlekar maintained that, although Kyrgyzstan was in the «not free» category, it has a number of independent outlets and called it a «bright spot in the Central Asia region.

She also noted that Kazakhstan appeared to be heading in the wrong direction.

«Kazakhstan is also very restricted and actually this year we’re highlighting Kazakhstan because of a fairly significant decline that we noted in 2012, where the space for independent voices was sort of narrowed even further,» she said, making reference to the «authorities banning around 40 opposition media outlets, increasing levels of violence and [the] legal persecution of independent media and journalists.»

Georgia and Armenia were praised for showing strong improvements, but Karlekar warned that Azerbaijan’s media environment had deteriorated.

«Azerbaijan is also a country of concern for us and scores quite bad,» she said. «It’s similar to [the] situations in Kazakhstan and Russia.»

Karlekar attributed the decline in Azerbaijan’s rating to «increased violence against journalists and also legal amendments that further limited access to information.»

‘Big Improvement’ In Afghanistan

Freedom House found the Russian government has almost «complete control over television, radio, and the print press.»

Karlekar suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin used that control during last year’s presidential elections and in a number of other ways.

«The situation continued to be quite bad and quite restrictive in Russia and we were particularly concerned with some of the laws that were enacted during the year, particularly, on the media front, a law that basically would allow for further censorship of Internet-based content, and that law took effect in November,» she said. «And, given that the Internet is this sort of relatively open space in Russia, that was definitely an issue that caused concern during the year for us.”

Afghanistan ranked as the second most improved country in Asia and was considered to have been one of the year’s «success stories» thanks to the decrease in violence against journalists and a reduction in the official censorship and prosecution of the press.

«Afghanistan actually showed a big improvement this year in our index,» Karlekar said. «Apart from Burma, it was the country in Asia that showed the biggest improvement, and we really saw a number of positive trends in 2012, including a decrease in violence against journalists, an increase in the number of new private media outlets that were more able to freely criticize the government and other political actors, and a decline in [the] official censorship and prosecution of journalists.»

Karlekar said little has changed in Iran and the Islamic republic remained ranked in the bottom eight worldwide for media freedom.

She described Pakistan as having a very vibrant media, but cited a «very high level of violence and intimidation against journalists.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/freedom-house-media-freedom-low-point/24974229.html