As the Internet has increased the free flow of information worldwide, oppressive governments have become adept at using online tools to advance their own agendas.

That is the conclusion of a report titled «The 10 Tools Of Online Oppressors,» released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on May 2.

In an interview with RFE/RL, Danny O’Brien, CPJ’s Internet advocacy coordinator and the report’s author, calls the trend «the darker side» of the Internet. He adds that countries that suppress traditional media also tend to be those seeking to suppress the free flow of information online.

«There’s a very strong match between the sort of freedoms the people have on the Internet and their corresponding press freedom,» O’Brien says. «Online freedoms tend to trail slightly press freedoms, which means that if press freedoms contract in a country — it’s only a matter of time before Internet freedoms also contract.»

Some tactics employed by authoritarian governments are crude and simple, like shutting down all Internet traffic — as deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak did briefly during the final days of his rule.

Others are more sophisticated, like the use of «denial-of-service attacks» in which an Internet server is flooded with a barrage of communication requests preventing it from functioning properly.

Many websites are banned in Iran.And as technology develops, O’Brien says, governments are resorting to ever-more stealthy methods. In China, for example, state monitoring agencies are targeting investigative journalists with spyware sent via e-mail.

«They use names and facts that the journalists know about. They pretend to be from someone they know,» O’Brien says. «And inside those e-mails are targeted pieces of software that can invade and take over those journalists’ computers, spy on what they’re doing, and then relay that to third parties.»

Iranian Regime Learns Quickly

Countries actively deploying online tools to suppress Internet freedom include China, Myanmar, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. But O’Brien says Iran provides the most flagrant example.

During the contested 2009 presidential election, the Iranian government was widely ridiculed for its lack of skill in using the Internet as protesters deftly used Twitter and Facebook to organize antigovernment demonstrations.

But the authorities in Tehran quickly recovered. «In Iran the government very quickly learned that the Internet was a force for opposition protests and independent media but it could be quickly switched around,» O’Brien says. «And now they have a very strong grip on the Iranian Internet.»

Iran and China, he says, have invested considerable sums to upgrade their online infrastructure and have hired additional personnel to monitor the Internet.

Tehran also recently began requiring all websites in Iran to be registered with the Ministry of Culture. Thousands of websites are banned in Iran.

The authorities also use pricing to restrict online access, with the fees for high-speed Internet connections beyond the means of the average Iranian.

Stealth Censorship

In Russia, Belarus, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, the authorities have increased their online monitoring activities and have sought to inhibit the distribution of news and information.

Governments in these regions are also using the Internet to spy on journalists and to incapacitate news websites not controlled by the state. They are also monitoring and disrupting blogs, chat rooms, and online forums that have, until recently, been free of such surveillance.

CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program coordinator, Nina Ognianova, says the authorities are also using cybercrime legislation against independent media sites. Such methods are reminiscent of the use of defamation suits against traditional journalists. They have also become increasingly deft at blocking websites.

«This kind of more insidious — not as direct — censorship has actually proven more effective in muzzling independent voices,» Ognianova says. «When we’re talking about newer forms of censorship, we’re talking about untraceable, intermittent blocking of selected websites. That intermittent blocking is done usually around sensitive political events such as elections.»

Governments usually deny involvement when websites are blocked, citing things beyond their control, like hackers or technical glitches. «Because it’s not traceable or easily traceable, or easily proven — it is highly effective, it is bound to be adopted by other regimes worldwide,» Ognianova says.

O’Brien says smart phones, which are becoming more widely available, are the next target for authoritarian governments as they seek to suppress online freedom and control citizens’ access to information.

«These phones give activists and journalists incredible power: video and upload and reporting from the world’s trouble spots. But it also means that everybody in those countries is effectively carrying a tracking device that can monitor where they are and perhaps even spy on them,» O’Brien says.

«So I think the real big fight between Internet online press freedom and these Internet oppressors is going to be management to keep control of the mobile-phone world.»

Nikola Krastev, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

http://www.rferl.org/content/watchdog_says_governments_better_at_suppressing_online_press_freedom/16

On behalf of the U.S. Embassy, I want to express my congratulations to the people of Tajikistan on World Press Freedom Day. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects freedom of the press, an essential element of a democratic society. To maintain a healthy society, private citizens must be free to express and hear differing opinions and views. Today the U.S. Embassy will launch an initiative to promote journalism for youth throughout Tajikistan. The Embassy will facilitate training that will introduce secondary school students to journalism and allow them to write and publish articles online.

It is also my pleasure to announce that the Embassy has selected Asia Plus journalist Ramziya Mirzobekova to participate in the World Press Freedom Day tour in New York City and Washington, D.C. Mrs. Mirzobekova wrote “Investigation or Inquisition,” an article that documented the case of Usmon Boboyev, a Sughd resident who allegedly died while being interrogated. We believe that it is critical for government officials to vigorously investigate alleged cases of torture and not punish journalists and newspapers who report on the subject. While in the United States, Mrs. Mirzobekova will meet with journalists from all over the world and will interview high-level officials from the White House, State Department, United Nations, and NGOs working on press freedom.

We support media freedom around the world. In Tajikistan, we are concerned about the continued detention of Asht journalist Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov, the ongoing lawsuits against Paykon, and the recent suit against Imruz News journalist Mirzomurod Bozor. We are watching developments in these cases closely and hope that our friends in the Tajik government will recognize that independent media plays a vital role in a healthy, democratic society.

On behalf of President Obama, I reaffirm the United States’ ongoing commitment to media freedom in Tajikistan. The U.S. Embassy works in partnership with the Government of Tajikistan, non-governmental organizations, and members of the media to promote a free and independent media. We have observed time and again that instability results not from too much freedom, but too little freedom. Airing of differences makes a country stronger and is the first step towards building a consensus.

http://dushanbe.usembassy.gov/

3 May 2011

When governments repress their people and shield themselves from scrutiny, press freedom is among the most powerful vehicles for exposing misdeeds and upholding public trust.

When people face discrimination and marginalization, access to media can give them voice and create a shared awareness of their plight.

And in an era of pressing global challenges, the free exchange of information and ideas through the media can connect people and countries in networks of common cause.

World Press Freedom Day has its roots in the African journalists who, in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of media restrictions in Eastern Europe, sought similar advances on their continent. They worked with UNESCO to organize the 1991 seminar in Namibia that produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration on free and independent media, which in turn inspired the UN General Assembly two years later to proclaim this observance.

Today it is the peoples of North Africa and the Middle East mobilizing for their democratic rights and freedoms — and doing so with a heavy and creative reliance on the Internet and social media to help spur change in their societies.

The theme of this year’s observance, “New Frontiers, New Barriers,” highlights this dramatically changed global media landscape. New media and tools such as cell phones continue to empower individuals, enrich news-gathering and illuminate once-largely-hidden workings of government, business and industry.

Yet alongside these benefits stand old challenges such as the use of media to disseminate hatred and incite violence. There are also undeniable new barriers being imposed by States, including cyber-surveillance, digital harassment and censorship on the Internet. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least six journalists who worked primarily online were killed in 2010. And in 2008, for the first time, more “online reporters,” were in jail than those working in traditional media.

On World Press Freedom Day, let us remember the journalists, editors and other media professionals who have been killed for their reporting. And let us honour their memory by pursuing justice. The impunity that often follows such murders suggests a disturbing lack of official concern for the protection of journalists, and outright contempt for the vital role they play. Many other journalists languish in jail simply for doing their jobs.

On this Day, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, let us also pledge to bridge the digital divide, so that all people can benefit from access to and use of new media and communication technologies.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the right of all people to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. Let us reaffirm our commitment to this bedrock principle of democracy, development and peace.

Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon clearly seems to be annoyed by the international media’s blanket coverage of the British royal wedding.

He suggested the global media should instead focus on more serious issues, such as the economic crisis and growing food prices.

Rahmon criticized journalists for covering «some wedding or other,» as if there were not enough problems in the world.

«Some journalists don’t notice the climate-change problems, the natural disaster in Japan, droughts, the growing price for oil and food, and instead they put reports from the weddings of princes and princesses on their front pages,» Rahmon said during a meeting with government officials in Dushanbe on April 29.
Rahmon also didn’t sound particularly impressed by the lavish wedding ceremony.

If anything like this happened in a former Soviet state, he said, «Everyone would immediately say this was a totalitarian regime.»

Rahmon has banned lavish weddings and other private functions in Tajikistan, setting a cap on the number of guests and the length of the ceremonies.

According to his instructions, you are not allowed to invite more than 150 guests, the wedding party cannot last for more than three hours, and the wedding convoy shouldn’t involve more than four cars.

So if you are planning a wedding on a shoestring budget, Tajikistan could be just the right place to have it.

— Farangis Najibullah

http://www.rferl.org/content/chaikhana_tajik_president_royal_wedding_totalitarianism/16798193.html

Deadline:31/12/1

Foundation of the Development of the Republic Abkhazia

Russian-language writers from Abkhazia, Russia, Ukraine, Republic of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are invited to the competition about Abkhazia.

The competition is aimed at finding talented authors, promoting them and helping them develop professionally.

The competition is supported by the Foundation of the Development of the Republic Abkhazia and Aydgylara, the Union of Abkhaz Youth in Russia.

For more information (in Russian), please, click here: http://www.abhazia-russia.ru/o-konkurse

http://www.abhazia-russia.ru/o-konkurse

The Public Affairs Section is launching an exciting new initiative.

You can take an online journalism course called World Youth News and become a journalist. The online course is self-paced and asynchronous. It’s a self-directed course designed by iEARN, NY Times, Columbia University School of Journalism to enable young people to gain the skills involved in being a journalist.

You are mentored by grad students from Columbia and NYU along the way. After you register, you can take the course on your own time. The reading materials are divided into five sections, and we recommend that you complete it within a week. Our American Corner Coordinators will provide computer time for you to complete the course, or you can do it at home.

The online interaction in the course provides opportunities to practice English with native speakers.

If you would like to take the course, please e-mail your name and e-mail address me: kobilovas@state.gov

This program will launch May 3, World Press Freedom Day!

Shafoat Kabilova

Grant Assistant / Alumni Coordinator

U.S. Embassy/Public Diplomacy Section

109 A, I.Somoni Ave., Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

e-mail: KobilovaS@state.gov

tel: (992-372) 29 23 14

cell phone (98)580 70 67

http://dushanbe.usembassy.gov

To automatically receive information about our programs, send a blank e-mail message to usembassydushanbeprograms-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

To join the STATE ALUMNI global community, please visit «https://alumni.state.gov» and follow the «Join Now!» link. Interactive and password-protected, alumni.state.gov offers the more than1,000,000 alumni of U.S. government exchange programs a place to network, share information, participate in Q&A Live discussions with experts, and access resources such as grants, jobs, and research databases.

http://dushanbe.usembassy.gov

DUSHANBE — Equipment from the offices of the independent Tajik weekly «Paikon» has been confiscated in line with a court-imposed fine of 300,000 somonis ($67,153) for libeling state consumer-protection agency Tojikstandart, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

«Paikon» correspondent Ahliddin Salimpour told RFE/RL that court bailiffs took two computers, a scanner, and a printer from the newspaper’s offices.

Tojikstandart brought the defamation suit after «Paikon» in 2009 published a statement from a group of businessmen who accused the product-safety watchdog of obstructing their activities.

In October 2009, Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district court ordered «Paikon» to pay 300,000 somonis in compensation to Tojikstandart.

Tajik lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov argued that the property confiscated by the court did not belong to «Paikon» but to the Bureau of Linguistic Expertise, Legal Advice, and Journalistic Investigations which, like «Paikon,» belongs to journalist Jumaboy Tolibov.

Nuriddin Qarshiboev, chairman of the National Association of Independent Media, alleged that the court case against «Paikon» was aimed not at ensuring that justice prevailed but at «strik[ing] fear in the hearts» of journalists.

«Paikon» has a weekly print run of 2,000 copies. Its editors are hoping that other newspapers will agree to publish reports written by «Paikon» journalists in the event that it cannot continue publishing.

Such mutual assistance is becoming increasingly common among hard-pressed independent publications in Tajikistan facing official pressure.

http://www.rferl.org/content/independent_tajik_weekly_confiscation/9502332.html

DUSHANBE — Tajikistan’s Islamic Renaissance Party has withdrawn its candidate for a by-election because its representatives have not been included in constituency election commissions, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

The May 15 by-election for Dushanbe’s Sino district is to fill a seat in the lower chamber of parliament that fell vacant last month when incumbent Shermahmad Shohiyon was appointed to head Tajikistan’s Central Electoral Commission.

Islamic Renaissance Party member Sayid Ibrohim Nazar was registered as a candidate on April 15.

At that time, the party asked the district election commission to include its representatives in lower-level commissions at individual polling stations.

Abdullo Habibov, head of the Sino district election commission, confirmed the receipt of the party’s request. He said the commission discussed it with legal advisers and did not find any obligation to comply.

Islamic Renaissance Party spokesman Hikmatullo Sayfullozoda told RFE/RL that the most important place during an election is the polling station, where all votes are counted and tabulated, and there’s no point in taking part if party representatives are unable to participate in that process at every single polling station.

Usmon Soleh, public-relations head for the ruling National Democratic Party of Tajikistan, said during the last elections, some parties did not even deploy monitors at polling stations. He asked rhetorically how those parties could demand representation on local election commissions.

The Majlisi Namoyandagon — the lower chamber of parliament — consists of 63 deputies elected for a five-year term. Twenty-two seats are divided among parties that gain more than 5 percent of the vote, and the remaining 41 deputies are elected from single-mandate constituencies.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_islamic_party_withdraws_byelection/9502279.html

With social media there is no excuse for arriving in a country unprepared. Easy access to free tools means that any journalist, traveling to report or deliver training, can be brought up-to-date with the latest information.

By following the seven points listed below a journalist will:

•have the latest news about the country they are visiting
•make contact with some of the key news makers
•have their finger on the local news pulse
1: Research using social media

Set up search columns in Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or your preferred Twitter aggregator for the name of the country and the city or cities where you are going to be working, and at least two names of people in the news. Jot down the issues being discussed. Search using these key words or, if they are regularly used, set up a column for them in your Twitter aggregator. (If you are not set up on Twitter yet, please carry out step two in «How to become a global media brand in 60 minutes» before you start.) By the way, there are many more — please check the Social Media Kitbag for latest updates.

2: Curate your own respository of essential information

Perhaps consider curating a collection of tweets and associated links, videos and images using curation tools such as Scoop.it, Curated.by or PearlTrees; there are many others too. Curation is the way to gather a unique collection of material specific to the task you are undertaking. All the information will already be in the public domain, but the mix of content that you collect will be unique to your needs. What’s more, you can share that material and invite others to comment and contribute.

To read more, click here: http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/social-networking/617-social-media-checklist-for-international-journalists

http://ijnet.org/blog/social-media-checklist-international-journalists

KHATLON, Tajikistan, — The local authorities in a district in southern Tajikistan have closed its only Orthodox church, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

Local official Dilbar Nurova said on April 20 that the church in the Jaloliddin Rumi district of Khatlon Province was closed because it was not officially registered.

She said the congregation had submitted a registration application, but it was rejected because of «some shortcomings.»

Nurova said that when the congregation submits a revised application, the church will be registered and they will be able to worship there. She noted that three local mosques have also been closed and must reregister.

Lyudmila Khojaeva, who heads the Union of Russian Speakers in Khatlon Province, said that closing the church just before Easter, one of the most important Christian festivals, is a blow to local Orthodox Christians. She said the authorities should have allowed more time to prepare the application for registration.

Russians are believed to account for 3-5 percent of Tajikistan’s population of 7.3 million people.

The registration of new places of worship and the registration of existing mosques and churches is mandatory under the controversial law on religion passed in 2009.

That law has served as the rationale for closing mosques and some churches. During the first three months of 2011, 229 mosques were closed in Khatlon Province alone.

http://www.rferl.org/content/sole_orthodox_church_in_southern_tajik_district_closed/9501426.html