BISHKEK — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says it will provide the family of murdered Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk with an independent lawyer, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

The OSCE decision was made after Pavlyuk’s wife and Tolekan Ismailova, the head of the Kyrgyz rights organization Citizens Against Corruption, called on the OSCE and the Russian Embassy in Bishkek to help conduct an independent investigation into Pavlyuk’s death.

Pavlyuk, 51, died in a hospital on December 22, six days after he was thrown from a high building in Almaty with his hands and feet bound.

Kazakh media quoted Kazakh police sources over the weekend as saying there were indications that Kyrgyz secret service officers may have been involved in Pavlyuk’s murder.

But Kyrgyz secret service officials accused the Kazakh media of disseminating false information.

Pavlyuk, an ethnic Russian, was the founder of the «White Steamer» newspaper and website and had worked for the newspaper «Vecherny Bishkek» (Evening Bishkek) and the Russian weekly «Argumenty i fakty.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/OSCE_To_Provide_Lawyer_For_Family_Of_Slain_Kyrgyz_Journalist/1921610.ht

Reporters Without Borders said it was extremely shocked at the death today of Kyrgyzstan journalist Gennady Pavlyuk who was thrown from a sixth floor window in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 16 December. Police confirmed he had been found at the foot of the building with his hands and feet bound.

The worldwide press freedom organisation expressed its deep sympathy with his family and colleagues.

The fatal attack, this time in a neighbouring country, is the third in a week launched against Kyrgyzstan journalists of Russian origin. Political analyst Alexander Knyazev was attacked in the capital Bishkek on 9 December and the correspondent for Russian news agency BaltInfo, Alexander Evgrafov, was struck and threatened by uniformed police on 15 December.

“Ten days ahead of taking over the presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Kazakh authorities cannot allow a murder like this to go unpunished and the Kyrghiz side must cooperate in resolving this case”, the organisation said.

“It is impossible at the moment to establish a direct link between the murder of Gennady Pavlyuk and the two previous assaults, even if a vocal minority has wanted to give the impression that it was a concerted plan. But in any event, the exploitation of these attacks in the interests of a strategy of nationalist and political tension is unacceptable. Journalists cannot go on being taken hostage by the extreme polarisation of Kyrgyzstan political life”.

“President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s stranglehold on the public debate stifling any space for free expression is contributing to the radicalisation of opposition forces and exacerbating tension. All political forces should immediately renounce the use of violence against journalists”, it added.

Following the assaults against Alexander Knyazev and Alexander Evgrafov, several Kyrghiz media received an email claiming responsibility and containing threats against minorities, particularly Russian, viewed as being supporters of the former president Askar Akayev. The Russian press raised an outcry that “journalists with links to Russia” appeared to be targeted in a “terror campaign”. Pavlyuk was, like the other two targeted journalists, a Russian Kyrghiz believed to be close to the opposition.

The press office of the Kyrghiz interior ministry on 18 December confirmed that Pavlyuk had been found two days earlier unconscious at the foot of a building on Furmanov Street, in the heart of the Kyrghiz capital. His rescuers found that he had multiple fractures and a serious head injury with internal bleeding. They concluded that he had been thrown from a fifth or sixth floor window. He was then said to be critically ill at the trauma department of Almaty’s central clinic.

Pavlyuk had recently become close to the opposition party Ata Meken, for which he was planning to create a website and a weekly news bulletin.

A number of questions remain unanswered, starting with the reason for which the journalist had gone to Almaty. It is not known whether he had an appointment in the building or if he had been taken there against his will, as believed by representatives of Ata Meken who travelled there at the weekend. Police in Almaty have opened a criminal investigation.

A known independent, Pavlyuk made his reputation as editor of the Kyrghiz edition of the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, under the regime of the former president Askar Akayev. Highly critical of the new government that emanated from the “tulip revolution” in 2005, the journalist at one time thought of leaving the country. Using the pseudonym Ibraguim Rustambek, he then became editor of the Kyrghiz edtion of Komsomolskaya Pravda, and one of the best known writers for the independent newspaper Bely Parokhod, editing its online version.

Bely Parokhod cast a highly critical eye on cases of corruption linked to the privatisation of energy companies. For the last year, the newspaper’s editor, Yelena Avdeeva, complained of pressure from the “energy barons”. The paper’s website was regularly being made inaccessible and the site frequently had to change its address, while the print version was renamed Bely Parus in anticipation of legal proceedings.

Nationalist rhetoric has deeply infected the political discourse in Kyrghzstan, which has been independent since 1991. It is deployed as much by the ruling party – which has just made it compulsory to stand up when the national anthem is played — as by an opposition that has been quick to condemn the monopoly on power of people from the south of the country.

http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=35416

Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk has died in an Almaty hospital nearly a week after police say he was thrown out of a high-rise building in Kazakhstan with his hands and feet bound.

Pavlyuk never regained consciousness following the December 16 attack during a visit to Almaty.

Pavlyuk’s wife Olga told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service that an autopsy would be performed today in Almaty and that after that she would take the body to Bishkek for burial.

Pavlyuk wrote for several newspapers, including «Argumenty i fakty» and «Komsomolskaya Pravda v Kirgizii.»

Pavlyuk’s supporters have described the incident as an attack on press freedom.

A Kazakh police spokesman said the death is being investigated as a murder, Reuters reports.

Pavlyuk is the third ethnic Russian journalist from Kyrgyzstan to have been attacked or seriously injured in the past two weeks.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_Journalist_Dies_In_Kazakh_Hospital_After_Attack/1910348.html

The staff at an independent newspaper in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh have received a death threat and a bullet in a letter, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Turgunbay Aldakulov, the editor in chief of the newspaper «Osh Shamy» (The Torch of Osh), told RFE/RL that his staff received a New Year’s greeting card with a machine gun bullet and a written threat on December 15.

Reporter Kubanych Joldoshev, who was severely beaten by unknown assailants last month, told RFE/RL that his colleagues are concerned by the threat.

The letter said: «Your lies do not cost anything. But they might cost you something though — your youth. This is our New Year’s Eve announcement. The other two [bullets] are in the AK-47’s magazine. For now, consider this the most humane attitude towards you. But those who do not appreciate [our message] will be punished.»

Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_Newspaper_Receives_Bullet_In_Mail/1906027.html

Police have said Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk’s hands and feet were bound when he was found unconscious after apparently being thrown from the window of a sixth-floor apartment, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

Almaty City Interior Ministry spokesman Yevgeny Lysenko told RFE/RL that Pavlyuk was found in very grave condition on December 16 and he had masking tape around his hands and feet.

He is currently in a coma in an Almaty hospital under armed guard. Doctors have said his condition is very grave.

Lysenko said Pavlyuk arrived to Almaty from Bishkek on December 16 and was staying at the Kazakhstan Hotel.

Omurbek Tekebaev, the leader of the Kyrgyz opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party, told RFE/RL that Pavlyuk was in the party’s offices in Bishkek to discuss details of a joint media project before leaving for Almaty.

Pavlyuk is a prominent Kyrgyz journalist of Russian origin. He used to work for the «Vecherny Bishkek» («Evening Bishkek») newspaper and Russia’s weekly «Argumenty i Fakty.»

He is also the founder of the «White Steamer» newspaper and website.

Pavlyuk is the third ethnic Russian journalist from Kyrgyzstan to have been attacked or seriously injured in the past two weeks.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kazakh_Police_Say_Kyrgyz_Journalist_Thrown_From_Building_/1909727.html

A prominent Uzbek photographer/videographer has been charged with defamation and damaging the country’s image because of the content of her photos and videos, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.

Umida Ahmedova, 54, took a series of photos and video at obscure Uzbek villages that she used for two documentaries in a project sponsored by the Swiss Embassy in Tashkent.

Ahmedova told RFE/RL that Uzbek officials disapprove of her photos used in the documentaries «The Burden Of Virginity» and «Customs Of Men And Women,» which focus on poverty and gender inequality in Uzbekistan.

Ahmedova, who has contributed photographs to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, said the charges against her were «groundless» and «absurd.»

Tashkent police investigator Nodir Ahmadjonov told RFE/RL that experts in the Prosecutor-General’s Office found her photos and videos to be defamatory and insulting.

The Uzbek Communication and Information Agency initiated the case against Ahmedova, who has been ordered not to leave Uzbekistan while an investigation is carried out.

If found guilty, Ahmedova could face a fine and be sentenced to up to two years in a labor camp or up to six months in prison.

Ahmadjonov added that Ahmedova could be released under an amnesty without being acquitted.

Ahmedova’s films were shown at the One World film festival in Prague in 2006, where they were popular with audiences.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Uzbek_Photographer_Charged_With_Defamation/1906455.html

A reporter for the Russian BaltInfo news agency was beaten in Kyrgyzstan’s capital today, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Aleksandr Evgrafov told RFE/RL that two men in police uniforms forced him into a car that had no license plates and tried to search him.

When he resisted they beat him, he said.

Evgrafov said the men instructed him not to write «bad things» about Kyrgyzstan, adding that he should not try to «exonerate former Kyrgyz authorities.»

Evgrafov said the attack is connected to his journalistic activities.

On December 9, unknown assailants attacked and beat Aleksandr Knyazev, the director of the Bishkek branch of the Commonwealth of Independent States Institute.

Knyazev has often criticized the foreign policy of the Kyrgyz government.

The same day, former Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Bolot Januzakov was also beaten and hospitalized.

Januzakov was a close associate of former Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev, who fled the country in 2005 and currently lives in Moscow.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Russian_Journalist_Beaten_In_Kyrgyzstan/1906005.html

On 14 December the Tajik Union of Journalists, NANSMIT and TAJANESMI jointly with the OSCE Bureau in Dushanbe held a round table to discuss the issues of access to information.

Participants of the round table discussed legal and practical issues of access to information. Particular attention was paid to the recent government decree “On the order of payment for information to government bodies”. Agenda of the round table is available here: http://www.nansmit.tj/?page=events&id=86

Abdufattokh Vokhidov, expert of the Tajik National Association of Independent Media (NANSMIT) expresses the opinion of his colleagues saying that, “This decree is not in compliance with legal guarantees for the media, and it can impede access to information”.
Abdusator Nuraliev, professor of the Russian-Tajik Slavic University also stated that “Publicly important information cannot be commercial”. “The Tajik Constitution and the Media Law guarantee the right of media professional to acquire information”, – he added.
Note: On 31 October 2009 the Government of Tajikistan endorsed the Decree “On the order of remuneration to state institutions and organizations for provision of information”.

Khovar, State News Agency

The Zhambyl regional appeals court in southern Kazakhstan has upheld the verdict against jailed independent journalist Ramazan Esergepov, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

Esergepov’s wife, Raushan Esergepova, told RFE/RL that her husband intends to appeal to Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court.

Esergepov, the owner and chief editor of the Almaty-based weekly «Alma-Ata Inform,» was sentenced to three years of jail this summer for revealing state secrets in an article printed in his newspaper in November 2008.

The weekly has since stopped publishing.

Esergepov and his relatives say the case against him is politically motivated.

Esergepov was arrested by the Committee of National Security (KNB) in January.

His wife says he has not been allowed to be represented by his own lawyer since he was arrested and forced to have a state-appointed attorney defend him.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kazakh_Court_Rejects_Appeal_By_Jailed_Journalist/1903662.html

BISHKEK — A Kyrgyz political analyst was severely beaten and robbed in Bishkek late on December 9, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Four assailants attacked Aleksandr Knyazev near his apartment and took his briefcase and laptop.

Knyazev said one of the assailants shouted, «That is for your politics!» as he left the scene of the attack.

Knyazev is as a well-known political analyst who has often criticized the foreign policy of Kyrgyzstan’s current government.

He is also the director of the Bishkek branch of the Commonwealth of Independent States Institute.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_Analyst_Beaten_Robbed_In_Bishkek/1900456.html