From October 2011 the international media NGO, International Media Support, will run a two and a half year programme in Tajikistan with various media projects focussing on support and professionalization of media, youth and media, capacity building of local media organizations and coordination of media activities with other international media NGOs.
 
International Media Support (IMS) seeks a Programme Manager to manage these media projects and to react to sudden future needs in the media environment of Tajikistan.
 
The Programme Manager must live in Tajikistan and work from there in close collaboration with local partners and IMS head quarters in Denmark, Department for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Programme Manager is expected to work closely together with IMS’ local umbrella partner, NANSMIT and work from the office of NANSMIT.
 
The IMS Programme Manager in Tajikistan will be responsible for the IMS projects in Tajikistan, including the following tasks:
 
1.    To become completely familiarized with the IMS projects in Tajikistan, budget, objectives, results and the time-frame in which the projects will take place (grant-administration and project cycle management).
 
2.    To locally manage and coordinate all IMS projects in Tajikistan in close cooperation with IMS’ local partners and to assess sudden needs of IMS involvement in non-planned activities.
 
3.    To make sure, that all IMS projects are carried out professionally, efficient and at reasonable economic costs in accordance with the budget-lines allocated.
 
4.    To monitor the results of the IMS projects in Tajikistan in accordance with the planned outputs. 

5.    To support the project management of NANSMIT (the umbrella partner of IMS in Tajikistan) and to monitor the results of the projects led by NANSMIT on behalf of IMS.
 
6.    To function as a communication link and coordinator between IMS and relevant local and international media/development organisations located in Tajikistan.
  
7.    To manage the project budgets and to pay local staff who are working for IMS (e.g. short term experts).
 
8.    To closely follow and monitor the media development in Tajikistan and to follow and monitor the overall political situation in the country (to the extent needed for media-development purposes).
 
9. To deliver qualified written input on the political development, the media development and the IMS projects in Tajikistan every half year for bi-annual reports to IMS’ back-donor and/or to report to IMS on the above listed tasks when required and needed.
 
10.To participate in a Skype meeting every 2nd week with IMS HQ.
 
 
Qualifications of the programme officer:
 
1.    Relevant educational background (in journalism, international relations, communications, politics, business, business administration, cultural studies, or similar academic studies).
 
2.    Preferably at least 3 years of professional experience in development assistance.
 
3.    Preferably documented experience with project management.
 
4.    Interest in and knowledge about media.
 
5.    Knowledge about Tajik and Central Asian politics – and a sensitive flair of the present political development and potential conflicts.
 
6.    Neutral, fair and balanced regarding possible political, religious and social conflicts in Tajikistan.
 
7.    Extensive communicative and cooperative skills.
 
8.    Extensive network in the Tajik society.
 
9.    Efficient, constructive and solution oriented.
 
10. Preferably experience with or from CIS countries.
 
11. Fluent in Tajik and English and knowledge of Russian.
 
 
The salary will be negotiated according to qualifications.
 
The start of the job is preferably October 2011.
 
The work place will be at the office of NANSMIT: 34, Huseinzoda str, Dushanbe city, Tajikistan

Deadline for applications: September 20 2011.

More information about the job at:

NANSMIT: Nurridin Karshiboev, phone: (+992 37) 221-37-11, (992 93) 504 30 13(mobile), e-mail: knuriddin@yandex.ru , or at Henrik Hansen, International Media Support (hkh@i-m-s.dk or skype: henrikkeith)

www.nansmit.tj

BISHKEK — A Kyrgyz journalist in exile says former presidential staff chief Medet Sadyrkulov was assassinated in 2009 for wanting to start a media campaign against President Kurmanbek Bakiev and his relatives, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Syrgak Abdyldaev told RFE/RL via phone on September 20 that Sadyrkulov had documents that were «a bomb that could blast the Bakievs’ reputation to smithereens within days.»

Abdyldaev said Sadyrkulov aproached him in early 2009 and asked him to launch a website to post the information presidential aide had amassed. The website was to be called «21st Century» and would have been based in Kazakhstan.

Sadyrkulov and the head of the Bishkek-based Institute for Strategic Studies and Analysis, Sergei Slepchenko, were going to handle financing and organizational issues, Abdyldaev said.

He added that the information Sadyrkulov had was «really explosive and I realized that I had got involved in a very dangerous game.»

On March 3, 2009, unknown assailants attacked Abdyldaev, stabbing him 29 times and nearly killing him.

Ten days later, the charred bodies of Sadyrkulov, Slepchenko, and their driver Kuat Sulaimanov were found in the wreckage of a car near Bishkek.

Officials said they died in a car accident, but their relatives challenged that, saying they had been killed long before the car was on fire.

A new investigation into the incident was begun after Bakiev was ousted in April 2010 and investigators agreed the three men had been killed before the alleged car accident.

Police said last week the murder of Sadyrkulov and Slepchenko was ordered by Bakiev’s brother, Janysh Bakiev, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Abdyldaev is living abroad at an undisclosed location.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kyrgyz_journalist_sheds_light_on_high_profile_killings/24335986.html

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Journalists at the Almaty-based online television company Stan-TV say they are under pressure from the Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB), RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

Stan-TV correspondent Sherniyaz Shaghatai told journalists in Almaty on September 20 that several persons who introduced themselves as KNB officers visited him last week in Hospital No. 7 — where he was undergoing treatment — and tried to persuade him to collaborate with them.

Shaghatai said they asked him about Stan-TV ‘s operations.
«They warned me that in the event that I refuse to collaborate with them, anything could happen to me or my relatives. They said that drugs may be found in my pockets or a car could hit my mother on her way home from work,» Shaghatai said.

He added that he and members of his family have noticed that a car follows them at all times and that they have recently started receiving strange phone calls from unknown callers.

Stan-TV producer Danesh Baibolatov told journalists that one of the company’s correspondents in a Kazakh region was recently urged by local KNB officials to quit his work.

Baibolatov added that Stan-TV’s video crew was constantly followed by unknown people during their visit last month to the western province of Manghystau, where they were covering an oil workers’ strike.

Shaghatai and Baibolatov say the pressure is connected with Stan-TV’s professional activities. They said they will ask local police for help.

On September 15, an Almaty court ruled that Stan-TV must stop using the antennas on the roof of its Almaty offices because they are endangering the health of nearby residents.

The court’s ruling was based on a statement by the Almaty city Health Office that the antennas and equipment of the Internet providers ASTEL and Digital TV pose a health threat.
On August 23, Stan-TV editors Elina Zhdanova and Baurzhan Musirov told journalists that the company had been subjected to intrusive inspections because of the company’s independent news coverage.

They said their offices were inspected without prior notice in mid-August by Almaty’s architecture and construction control, fire-safety control, and hygiene control agencies.

The inspectors told them the inspections were undertaken in response to written complaints from residents of nearby apartment blocks about the large antennas mounted on the roof of Stan-TV’s office. The inspectors said the residents complained that the antennas are affecting their health.

Zhdanova and Musirov said they subsequently met with some of those residents, who told them police had pressured them to write letters of complaint.

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

The station, which covers Central Asia in video reports posted on its website, often publishes reports critical of the Kazakh government and individual government members.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakhstan_tv_journalists_state_pressure/24335125.html

ALMATY — An Almaty court has ruled that the independent online television company Stan-TV must stop using the antennas on the roof of its Almaty offices, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

The Almaty-based nongovernmental organization Adil Soz responded to the ruling with a statement saying the court’s decision imposes limitations on the station’s professional activities.

The court’s ruling was based on a statement by the Almaty city Health Office that the antennas and equipment of the Internet providers ASTEL and Digital TV pose a threat to the residents of nearby buildings.

On August 23, Stan-TV editors Elina Zhdanova and Baurzhan Musirov told journalists that the company had been subjected to intrusive inspections because of its independent news coverage.

They said their offices were inspected without prior notice in mid-August by Almaty’s architecture and construction control, fire-safety control, and hygiene control agencies.

The inspectors told them the inspections were undertaken in response to written complaints from residents of nearby apartment blocks about the large antennas mounted on the roof of Stan-TV’s office. The inspectors said the residents complained that the antennas are affecting their health.

Zhdanova and Musirov said they subsequently met with some of those residents, who told them police had pressured them to write letters of complaint.

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 video reports critical of the Kazakh government and some of its officials.

http://www.nansmit.tj/admin/eng/?data=news&act=add

BISHKEK — Dozens of activists picketed the Uzbek Embassy in Bishkek today in support of Uzbek journalist Yelena Bondar, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

One of the organizers of the picket, Ulugbek Babakulov, told RFE/RL that Bondar was arrested at Tashkent airport on August 22 on her return from Bishkek, where she had attended journalism seminars organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The protesters signed a petition addressed to Uzbekistan’s Prosecutor-General Rashidjon Kadyrov urging him personally to look into Bondar’s case.

Bondar was briefly detained and fined for bringing in undeclared goods that included CDs and memory sticks, which were confiscated and are now being analyzed by the state Information and Communications Agency.

No Uzbek Embassy official met with the protesters.

Kadyrov said the petition will therefore be sent to the Uzbek authorities by regular mail and via the Internet.

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan_journalist_arrest/24315808.html

His Excellency Emomali Rakhmon
President of Tajikistan
Address: Rudaki Ave. 80
Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan
Email : mail@president.tj

Paris, Dushanbe, 7 September 2011

Your Excellency, President Emomali Rakhmon,

The international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders and the National Association of Independent Mass Media in Tajikistan (NANSMIT) would like to share with you their relief at BBC correspondent Urunboy Usmonov’s recent provisional release. We also would like to thank you if it was because of your intervention. We will be following his trial closely.

On the eve of the International Day of Solidarity with Journalists, we want to draw your attention to the case of Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a journalist detained in the northern province of Sughd since 23 November 201, whose case has similarities with Mr. Usmonov’s. As guarantor of your country’s Constitution and the international conventions it has ratified, we urge you to do everything in your power to ensure respect for the presumption of innocence and a fair trial for Mr. Ismoilov.

Mr. Ismoilov is charged with inciting religious and racial hatred (Article 189 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code), blackmailing (Article 250), defamation (Article 135) and insult (Article 136) for what he wrote in various publications including the newspaper Nuri Zindagi about alleged corruption among representatives of local judicial bodies and certain local officials.

We therefore urge you to intercede with the judicial authorities, within the limits of your powers under to constitution, so that an additional investigation can be conducted and so that Mr. Ismoilov’s trial can be transferred to a different location such as Dushanbe and can be heard by a court that is not directly involved.

In order to respect the principle of the presumption of innocence, Mr. Ismoilov must also be granted provisional release without delay. Pre-trial detention is a serious measure that seems out of all proportion in this case. He is not in a position to put pressure on witnesses or eliminate evidence. Depriving Mr. Ismoilov of his freedom seems more like an act of personal revenge than an act of impartial justice.

We hope that you, as the President and guarantor of constitutional rights of Tajik citizens, will make sure that Mr. Ismoilov is treated in a fair and equitable manner and that national and international rules of justice are respected. We trust that you will appreciate the importace of our request and will take an appropriate action.

Sincerely,

Jean-François Julliard Nuriddin Karshiboev
Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General NANSMIT Chairman

www.nansmit.tj

DUSHANBE — A retired Tajik journalist says he has been deported from Uzbekistan on spurious grounds, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

Hamid Atakhanov, 70, told RFE/RL on September 5 that on August 20 he was invited to the prosecutor’s office in the central Uzbek city of Bukhara where he was told he is being deported from the country.

Atakhanov said the official explanation was that he is accused of igniting hatred between Tajiks and Uzbeks and also because he is active on environmental issues.

Atakhanov said the prosecutor showed him two letters sent by residents of Bukhara that led them to decide he must be deported. He said prosecutors did not give him enough time even to say goodbye to his family.

Atakhanov worked as a journalist for several different Tajik newspapers and for the Russian daily «Izvestiya.» He lived for a number of years in Russia before moving to Bukhara in 2003 to take care of his ill wife.

Nuriddin Qarshiboev, the head of Tajikistan’s National Association of Independent Journalists, said his organization has found a temporary home in Tajikistan for Atakhanov and is trying to find a job for him.

Atakhanov said he is going to ask human right organizations to help him get permission to return to Uzbekistan and care for his wife.

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan_deports_retired_tajik_journalist/24318936.html

DUSHANBE — A Tajik newspaper editor who was attacked on his way to an end of Ramadan celebration says that he has met and forgiven his assailants, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

Khurshed Atovullo, editor of the independent weekly «Farazh,» said he was driving to a friend’s home in Dushanbe on August 31 when a car blocked the road and forced him to stop.

Three people armed with clubs then attacked Atovullo, his brother, and his brother-in-law, who were with him.

Atovullo said he saw the license-plate number of the assailants’ car and police immediately tracked them down.

Avatullo said he met with them and their parents after police on September 2 invited him to the police station.

He said his attackers are teenagers and that their parents asked him to forgive them.

He said on September 5 he accepted their apologies, adding that the assault was not related to his work.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_journalist_firgives_attackers/24318565.html

BISHKEK — Dozens of activists picketed the Uzbek Embassy in Bishkek today in support of Uzbek journalist Yelena Bondar, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

One of the organizers of the picket, Ulugbek Babakulov, told RFE/RL that Bondar was arrested at Tashkent airport on August 22 on her return from Bishkek, where she had attended journalism seminars organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The protesters signed a petition addressed to Uzbekistan’s Prosecutor-General Rashidjon Kadyrov urging him personally to look into Bondar’s case.

Bondar was briefly detained and fined for bringing in undeclared goods that included CDs and memory sticks, which were confiscated and are now being analyzed by the state Information and Communications Agency.

No Uzbek Embassy official met with the protesters.

Kadyrov said the petition will therefore be sent to the Uzbek authorities by regular mail and via the Internet.

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan_journalist_arrest/24315808.html

Union of Journalists of Tajikistan
National Association of Independent Mass Media, Tajikistan
Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law

Joint Statement

The Union of Journalists of Tajikistan, the Tajik National Association of Independent Mass Media and the non-governmental organization Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law condemn the beating of Khurshed Niyozov (Khurshedi Atovullo), chief editor of the Farazh weekly by unknown assailants. This is the second attack upon Tajik journalists during this year, which raises serious concerns over physical safety among media professionals. IN February 2011, chief editor of the Najot weekly Khikmatullo Saifullozoda was beaten by unknown attackers.

On 31 August, approximately at 12:30 p.m., on the territory of Zaravshon district in Dushanbe, chief editor of the newspaper Farazh and secretary general of the Tajik media alliance Khurshed Niyozov was attacked by unknown persons. Two other persons accompanying the journalist also were attacked. Niyozov and his companions applied to the police in Sino district of the capital.

It would be inappropriate to state that the attack is related to Niyzov’s professional activities. However, the attack on any citizen of Tajikistan on the eve of the 20-th anniversary of the national independence upon the background of court hearings against the Tajik media raises a real concern among media professionals.

UJT, NANSMIT and HRB insist on a prompt and thorough investigation of the incident and bringing the criminals to responsibility. We stress that Khurshed Niyozov (Khurshedi Atovullo) is one of the leading Tajik journalists. Advocating resolution of any conflicts in the media environment within the frameworks of international and domestic laws, we also stress the necessity of guarantying safety of Tajik nationals by the law enforcement agencies – since personal physical safety is a fundamental constitutional right, as well as the right on free expression.

Akbarali Sattarov,
Chairman of UJT

Nargis Zokirova
Director of HRB

Nuriddin Karshiboev
Chairman of NANSMIT

Dushanbe, 1 September 2011

www.nansmit.tj