The Kyrgyz Supreme Court has ruled that the case of slain journalist Alisher Saipov should be sent back to an Osh city court for further investigation, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Sapiov’s father, Avaz Saipov, initiated the Supreme Court appeal, hoping that his son’s murder would be reinvestigated by a different court.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling means the same court will be conducting the fresh investigation.

Former policeman Abdufarid Rasulov has been accused of involvement in Saipov’s murder and was awaiting trial.

Twenty-six-year-old Alisher Saipov, who was murdered in broad daylight in 2007, was an ethnic Uzbek and editor in chief of an Osh-based newspaper who often wrote articles critical of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and his government.

He also worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL and Voice of America.

In 2007 Saipov was shot dead as he left his office in central Osh.

His father told RFE/RL that he was unhappy with today’s Supreme Court decision.

He insisted he has evidence that shows his son was killed by agents from Uzbekistan in retaliation for the critical articles he wrote.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Kyrgyz_High_Court_Returns_Journalists_Murder_Case_To_Osh_Court/1899852.

The number of freelance journalists jailed around the world has almost doubled in the past three years and reflects a changing global news business, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

A report by the New York-based press freedom group found that as of December 1 there were 136 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behind bars, an increase of 11 from 2008. Almost half of those jailed are freelance media members.

It said the number of freelance media jailed had grown as the Internet allowed more journalists to work independently and some news organizations started relying on freelancers rather than staff for international coverage to cut costs.

«The days when journalists went off on dangerous assignments knowing they had the full institutional weight of their media organizations behind them are receding into history,» said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

«Today, journalists on the front lines are increasingly working independently. The rise of online journalism has opened the door to a new generation of reporters, but it also means they are vulnerable,» he said in a statement.

China was found to have jailed the most journalists for the 11th year in a row, holding 24 members of the media, followed by Iran, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma, the report found.

Most of the 23 journalists jailed in Iran were detained during a crackdown on protesters and media after the June reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, CJP said.

Cuba is holding 22 journalists, 20 of whom were jailed when former leader Fidel Castro targeted independent press in 2003. Eritrea has imprisoned 19 journalists and Burma is holding nine.

Another 21 countries have jailed journalists, the report found, including the United States, which has detained for more than a year a freelance Iraqi journalist who worked for Reuters.

The number of online journalists in jail continued to rise to 68 this year. Print reporters, editors, and photographers account for 51 and television, radio, and documentary filmmakers make up the rest.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Number_Of_Jailed_Freelance_Journalists_Soars_CPJ_Finds/1898740.html

On 6 December Radio Vatan launched broadcasting in Khatlon province of Tajikistan at the frequency 102,4 FM.

So far, Khatlon province was covered only by government radio and TV stations. Radio Vatan has become the first private radio station that received a license for broadcasting in country regions.

The radio company intends to organize broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Radio Vatan appeared on 7 May 2003. Vatan’s information service is an official partner of the Tajik news agency Avesta and the Deutche Welle World Service. Vatan produces news programs every 30 minutes in Russian and Tajik languages.
Estimated audience of Radio Vatan is 2,5 million listeners.

Avesta

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon is going to hold a meeting with representatives of the mass media on 8 December in Dushanbe.

According to the President’s executive office, Rakhmon is going to discuss problems of the media, and issues of interaction between private media with ministries and other government agencies.

It is expected that the meeting will be held in the form of discussion, which will touch upon the influence of the mass media on Tajikistan’s economy.

Avesta

DUSHANBE — Tajik and Russian officials signed an agreement in Dushanbe today to fight drug-related crime, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

The agreement was signed by the head of Tajikistan’s antidrug agency, Lieutenant General Rustam Nazarov, and Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Yury Popov.

Nazarov said after signing the agreement that it creates a new framework for joint efforts to fight drug trafficking and to rehabilitate drug addicts.

Popov said it opens new ways for various Russian and Tajik ministries to crack down on drug-related businesses.

The Tajik Interior Ministry told RFE/RL that officials have confiscated some 4,200 kilograms of illegal drugs, including 1,046 kilograms of heroin this year.

Some Tajik analysts told RFE/RL that they hope the agreement will help remove Russian stereotypes about Tajiks and their involvement in drugs.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Tajikistan_Russia_Agree_To_Fight_DrugRelated_Crime/1895206.html

DUSHANBE — Tajik human rights activist Nigina Bakhrieva says the decision by Kyrgyz officials to ban her from entering Kyrgyzstan was a great surprise, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Bakhrieva told RFE/RL that border guards at Bishkek’s Manas Airport did not allow her to enter the country on December 2 when she arrived and told her she cannot enter Kyrgyzstan until 2019.

No explanations for the refusal were given.

Bakhrieva says she was invited by the Kyrgyz nongovernmental organization Voice of Liberty to take part in training for employees in the Kyrgyz ombudsman’s office.

She said rights activists will ask Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun to seek an official explanation for the ban against her.

Bakhrieva said she has traveled to Kyrgyzstan regularly since 2004 and it is «a pity» she will not be able to go there for 10 years.

She added that she has never been involved in politics and went to Bishkek as a human rights expert for seminars held by the United Nations’ office in Bishkek.

Bakhrieva said she has a visa to take part in a conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, next week «so I do not have any problems entering Turkmenistan, but I now have problems to enter the so-called ‘island of democracy’ in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan.»

Bakhrieva was one of the experts who filed a report on the situation in the southern Kyrgyz village of Nookat where, in October 2008, Nookat residents protested after not being allowed to celebrate in a stadium the Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of Ramadan.

Dozens of people were sentenced to jail for «organizing unsanctioned mass gatherings that led to mass disorder.»

Human rights activists consider the incident a politically motivated move against practicing Muslims.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Tajik_Activist_Surprised_At_Kyrgyz_Entry_Ban/1894996.html

Human Rights Watch is urging the Kyrgyz government to immediately stop harassing human rights monitors doing research in southern Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz authorities recently denied entry to prominent Tajik human rights activist Nigina Bakhrieva. She was the third foreign advocate working in southern Kyrgyzstan to be denied entry or deported in 2009.

Bakhrieva was preparing a report about the arrests and sentencing of residents of the southern village of Nookat.

Nookat residents had taken to the streets in protest after they were denied the right to publicly celebrate the Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of Ramadan.

In a statement, Andrea Berg, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, says: «Kyrgyzstan is increasingly harassing rights advocates investigating the government’s abusive campaign in southern Kyrgyzstan. It’s no coincidence that Bakhrieva was denied entry after having been in touch with Nookat lawyers.»

HRW says the government is carrying out a campaign in the south against what it views as Islamic extremism.

http://www.rferl.org/content/HRW_Tells_Kyrgyzstan_To_Stop_Harassing_Rights_Monitors/1895334.html

Rights campaigners in Bishkek say a Tajik human rights activist was not allowed to enter Kyrgyzstan today, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Aziza Abdyrasulova, chairwoman of the Kylym Shamy (Torch of the Century) human rights center, told RFE/RL that border guards at Bishkek airport did not allow Negina Bakhryeva to enter the country, saying they had an order barring her from entering until 2010.

Abdrasulova said Bakhryeva might have been added to a «black list» because of her work in monitoring the situation with human rights in Kyrgyzstan’s south, in particular a report she was preparing about the arrests and subsequent sentencing of dozens of people in the southern village of Nookat in October 2008.

Nookat residents had taken to the streets in protest after they were denied the right to celebrate the Eid-al-Fitr festival marking the end of Ramadan in a local stadium.

Dozens were sentenced for «organizing unsanctioned mass gatherings that led to mass disorder.»

Human rights activists consider the Nookat case a politically motivated move by Kyrgyz authorities against Muslims.

Two Russian human rights activists — Vitaly Ponomarev and Bahrom Hamroev — were deported from Kyrgyzstan’s south on separate occasions earlier this year.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Tajik_Human_Rights_Activist_Not_Allowed_Into_Kyrgyzstan_/1893609.html

A “training for trainers” was held on 20-21 November in Almaty, Kazakhstan within the framework of the project “Protection of human rights and legal education through the media” organized by the British Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) under support from European Commission.

The main purposes of the training were: development of trainer skills, planning and logistical arrangements, along with interactive teaching and structural analysis methodologies.

The training sessions were conducted by Vyacheslav Abramov, director of the MediaNet International Journalism Center, Kazakhstan. He is also chief editor of the human rights online portal Voice of Freedom Central Asia www.vof.kg

NANSMIT monitoring service

The Tajik government has introduced a new decree obliging journalists to pay for information obtained from officials, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

According to the document issued on November 19, journalists must pay 25 somoni (about $4.50) for each page of printed text provided by an official institution or state agency. As of January 1, the cost will be increased to 35 somoni per page.

Tajik officials say the decree was adopted on October 31 and corresponds to the newly adopted law on the mass media.

National Alliance of Independent Media Chairman Nuriddin Qarshiboev told RFE/RL the decree violates the constitution, which guarantees free access to information.

Juma Mirzo, editor in chief of the weekly «Nuri Zindagi,» told RFE/RL the decree could bankrupt all media outlets in Tajikistan.

Tajik presidential administration spokesman Mahmud Saraev rejected such criticism, saying the decree does not restrict access to information since it applies only to information requested in advance. He didn’t elaborate on that qualification.

http://www.rferl.org/content/In_Tajikistan_Free_Information_Comes_At_A_Price/1883466.html