Less that a month after covering Turkmenistan’s parliamentary elections, two journalists in the Central Asian country have endured a tough start to the new year.

Osman Hallyev, a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service in the country’s northeastern Lebap Province, was briefly arrested at the beginning of the month and says he has essentially been under house arrest since then.

His life, he says, has become depressing and unbearable. His phone line has been cut and his every movement watched.

«Wherever I go, I’m under surveillance, even if I go to a gas station,» Hallyev says. «If I visit my neighbors, officials contact them and ask why I visited them and what we talked about. It’s impossible to leave home — whomever I visit would be immediately interrogated by officials.»

And the harassment, Hallyev says, is not only confined to him. He claims that several family members, including his son and pregnant daughter-in-law, have been fired from their jobs.
Dovletmurat Yazguliev, another RFE/RL correspondent who covered the elections in Turkmenistan, was summoned in late December along with his wife and threatened by local officials in his native Ahal Province.

Since then, Yazguliev says, he has come under additional pressure from the authorities. Last week, he said he has come to realize that his continued reporting for Western media could lead to his imprisonment in Turkmenistan, where independent media is virtually nonexistent and free speech is not tolerated.

Targeting Journalists

While Turkmenistan is widely considered the most restrictive media environment in the region, journalists elsewhere in Central Asia experience similar difficulties.

In Tajikistan in the past week, another RFE/RL contributor, Abdumumin Sherkhonov, was beaten by three men — one of whom allegedly introduced himself as an Interior Ministry employee.

Two of the men have reportedly been detained by the authorities.

And in Kazakhstan, a journalist accused of publishing state secrets in his weekly newspaper is in custody after security officials escorted him from his hospital room last week to face charges.

Ramazan Esergepov, editor in chief of the «Alma-Ata Info» weekly, who was receiving treatment for high blood pressure and heart disease, is now being held in a Kazakh prison pending trial.

His wife, Raushan Esergepova, said her husband is being held handcuffed in solitary confinement, where he has begun a hunger strike.

«He has been taken from an isolated cell in the detention center to another cell without windows, he told me. There he got a kidney inflammation,» Esergepova said.

«It’s freezing cold in that cell, his hands have turned blue with cold. And he is constantly handcuffed,» she continued. «It really makes me angry — why should a journalist, an editor of a newspaper, be held handcuffed? Is it because they want to insult and humiliate him?»

Bringing Trend To Light

Although there are no obvious connections between the four cases, some see them as further evidence that the state of free speech and media freedom in Central Asia continues to deteriorate.
Elsa Vidal, the chief of the desk for Europe and former Soviet countries for the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, says it was a «black week» for Central Asian media and a serious blow for freedom of speech in the region.

Vidal says that in Central Asia, «journalists can be attacked or assaulted because they have written a very specific article that is threatening the interest of a representative of the government or a local public servant.»

But Vidal adds that «more generally speaking, those who tend not to comply with intimidation, those who resist attempts to make them write what they don’t think they should write, all these journalists that are not serving the power,» can be targeted.

Reporters Without Borders has been trying to bring the issue of attacks on media freedom to the attention of influential institutions, such as the European Union, Vidal says.

It has repeatedly called on the EU to put pressure on Central Asian governments to respect their citizens’ rights to freedom of speech.

But many journalists in the region say not enough is being done, and express fears that Central Asia’s energy wealth may be the reason.

In numerous articles, journalists from the region have accused the West and the EU in particular of turning a blind eye to human rights and media-freedom issues.

Geopolitical interests and the growing need for oil and gas, they say, cause Western politicians to think twice before criticizing Central Asian governments. And governments in the region, the same journalists say, are acutely aware of their advantage.

RFE/RL’s Kazakh and Turkmen services contributed to this report

Farangis Najibullah

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/Content/A_Black_Week_For_Central_Asian_Media_Freedom/1369600.html

Relations between the Russian Embassy in Tajikistan and Tajik media outlets have hit a rough patch amid a public and contentious spat that has played out in recent weeks.
In December, after the gruesome murders of two Tajik citizens in the Moscow region, several newspapers in Dushanbe accused Russian authorities of failing to uphold the civil rights of labor migrants, thereby leaving Tajiks laborers vulnerable to hate crimes perpetrated by criminal gangs and xenophobic nationalists. Adding further insult in the eyes of Tajik journalists, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov took steps in December to limit the number of work permits for foreign labor migrants. Tajikistan, with as many as a million workers in Russia, is deeply dependent on their remittances home.
Responding to the criticism on December 24, the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe sent a protest note to the Tajik Foreign Ministry demanding that authorities take measures to muzzle local media outlets. The embassy accused Tajik journalists of «deliberately» distorting facts, adding that «certain Tajik journalists had taken the liberty of insulting» top Russian officials.
Rather than curtailing the attacks of Tajik journalists, the Russian Embassy protest seemed to cause an intensification of the criticism. One headline, published in Millat Weekly shortly after the Russian Embassy note became public knowledge, blared; «[Russian political supreme Vladimir] Putin Speaks, a Skinhead Acts, a Tajik Dies.» Accompanying the article was a photomontage depicting Putin before a swastika and a prostrate young man performing a fascist salute.
The weekly Tojikiston played up a similar theme, publishing a photomontage of a neo-Nazi accompanied by a headline «Russians.»
Nuriddin Karshibayev, head of Tajikistan’s National Association of Independent Media (NANSMIT), a Tajik umbrella non-governmental organization comprising more than 30 media outlets, said the Russian Embassy was out of line to criticize Tajik coverage of attacks on migrant workers in Russia.
Russian diplomats have no right to «ask the [Tajik] government to take measures against certain private media who dared to express their own viewpoint about the brutal killing of our compatriots,» Karshibayev told EurasiaNet. NANSMIT runs a monitoring network and legal support centers to help protect Tajik journalists.
Sayofi Mizrob, editor of the private weekly SSSR agrees. «If the [Russian] embassy has facts of defamation or insult, it should approach a court,» he said.
In what some interpret as an insensitive response to the dispute, the Russian Interior Ministry released figures alleging the number of crimes committed by Tajiks in Russia has doubled in the past five years. The ministry also claimed the number of crimes against Tajiks fell by 10 percent in 2008, the Interfax news agency reported December 27.
In early January, the Tajik Union of Journalists and NANSMIT issued a joint statement calling for calm and mutual respect. But it remained firm on the Russian Embassy’s note: «The tone and contents of the note demanding ’the most urgent measures against the dissemination of such materials in the Tajik media’ are inadmissible; they contradict the international standards of freedom of speech.»
The editor of one newspaper in question, Kurshed Atovullo of Faraj, responded in an interview with the Asia-Plus news agency; «The Tajik newspaper Faraj has never published reports which give grounds for the Russian Embassy to make complaints.» He went on to suggest that «the Tajik Foreign Ministry should immediately send a similar reply note to the Russian Foreign Ministry, because there are lots of offensive reports in the Russian press about Tajiks.»
An allegation posted January 3 on the website of the Tajik Labor Migrants’ movement has further stoked passions. The movement claimed that a criminal group with police links in the Russian city of Astrakhan had taken fifty Tajik train passengers hostage while en route home. The Tajiks purportedly had violated customs procedures and the criminals were asking for a ransom of approximately $1,000 for each of the detained passengers, the website alleged.
Davlat Nazriyev, head of the Tajik Foreign Ministry’s Information Department, said that the Tajik Labor Migrants movement’s allegations could not be verified. The Tajik Embassy in Russia conducted its own investigation, he added, and found no truth to the hostage-taking claim.

The Tajik Prosecutor-General’s office calculates that the number of Tajiks who died in Russia in 2008 nearly doubled over the previous year, rising to at least 681. The deaths were connected with accidents on construction sites, as well as crimes, including hate crimes. Most of the deaths were not investigated. Because it is overwhelmingly dependant on the Russian economy, Tajikistan has little leverage to complain.

Editor’s Note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance journalist based in Dushanbe.

Posted January 12, 2009 © Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org

Konstantin Parshin, EurasiaNet

Источник: http://eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav011209a.shtml

New York, December 4, 2008
Reflecting the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that 45 percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors. Online journalists represent the largest professional category for the first time in CPJ’s prison census.
Abdel Karim Suleiman, an Egyptian blogger, is one of 56 online journalists jailed worldwide. (Reuters)
CPJ’s survey found 125 journalists in all behind bars on December 1, a decrease of two from the 2007 tally. (Read detailed accounts of each imprisoned journalist.) China continued to be world’s worst jailer of journalists, a dishonor it has held for 10 consecutive years. Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan round out the top five jailers from among the 29 nations that imprison journalists. Each of the top five nations has persistently placed among the world’s worst in detaining journalists.
At least 56 online journalists are jailed worldwide, according to CPJ’s census, a tally that surpasses the number of print journalists for the first time. The number of imprisoned online journalists has steadily increased since CPJ recorded the first jailed Internet writer in its 1997 census. Print reporters, editors, and photographers make up the next largest professional category, with 53 cases in 2008. Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute the rest.
«Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we communicate with each other,» said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. «But the power and influence of this new generation of online journalists has captured the attention of repressive governments around the world, and they have accelerated their counterattack.»
In October, CPJ joined with Internet companies, investors, and human rights groups to combat government repression of online expression. After two years of negotiations, this diverse group announced the creation of the Global Network Initiative, which establishes guidelines enabling Internet and telecommunications companies to protect free expression and privacy online. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have joined the initiative.
Illustrating the evolving media landscape, the increase in online-related jailings has been accompanied by a rise in imprisonments of freelance journalists. Forty-five of the journalists on CPJ’s census are freelancers; most of them work online. These freelancers are not employees of media companies and often do not have the legal resources or political connections that might help them gain their freedom. The number of imprisoned freelancers has risen more than 40 percent in the last two years, according to CPJ research.
«The image of the solitary blogger working at home in pajamas may be appealing, but when the knock comes on the door they are alone and vulnerable,» said CPJ’s Simon. «All of us must stand up for their rights—from Internet companies to journalists and press freedom groups. The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.»
Antistate allegations such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests are the most common charge used to imprison journalists worldwide, CPJ found. About 59 percent of journalists in the census are jailed under these charges, many of them by the Chinese and Cuban governments.
About 13 percent of jailed journalists face no formal charge at all. The tactic is used by countries as diverse as Eritrea, Israel, Iran, the United States, and Uzbekistan, where journalists are being held in open-ended detentions without due process. At least 16 journalists worldwide are being held in secret locations. Among them is Gambian journalist «Chief» Ebrima Manneh, whose whereabouts, legal status, and health have been kept secret since his arrest in July 2006. From the U.S. Senate to the West African human rights court, international observers have called on authorities to free Manneh, who was jailed for trying to publish a critical report about Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
Nowhere is the ascendance of Internet journalism more evident than in China, where 24 of 28 jailed journalists worked online. China’s prison list includes Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist and blogger, who is serving a prison term of three and a half years for online commentaries and media interviews in which he criticized the Communist Party. He was convicted of «incitement to subvert state power,» a charge commonly used by authorities in China to jail critical writers. At least 22 journalists are jailed in China on this and other vague antistate charges.
Cuba, the world’s second worst jailer, released two imprisoned journalists during the year after negotiations with Spain. Madrid, which resumed cooperative programs with Cuba in February, has sought the release of imprisoned writers and dissidents in talks with Havana. But Cuba continued to hold 21 writers and editors in prison as of December 1, all but one of them swept up in Fidel Castro’s massive 2003 crackdown on the independent press. In November, CPJ honored Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, who at 65 is the oldest of those jailed in Cuba, with an International Press Freedom Award.
Burma, the third worst jailer, is holding 14 journalists. Five were arrested while trying to spread news and images from areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis. The blogger and comedian Maung Thura, who uses the professional name Zarganar, was sentenced to a total of 59 years in prison during closed proceedings in November. Authorities accused Maung Thura of illegally disseminating video footage of relief efforts in hard-hit areas, communicating with exiled dissidents, and causing public alarm in comments to foreign media.
Eritrea, with 13 journalists in prison, is the fourth worst jailer. Eritrean authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts, legal status, or health of any of the journalists they have imprisoned. Unconfirmed online reports have said that three of the jailed journalists may have died in custody, but the government has refused to even say whether the detainees are alive or dead.
Uzbekistan, with six journalists detained, is the fifth worst jailer. Those in custody include Dzhamshid Karimov, nephew of the country’s president. A reporter for independent news Web sites, Karimov has been forcibly held in a psychiatric hospital since 2006.
Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ’s analysis:
• In about 11 percent of cases, governments have used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist’s work.
• Violations of censorship rules, the next most common charge, are applied in about 10 percent of cases. Criminal defamation charges are filed in about 7 percent of cases, while charges of ethnic or religious insult are lodged in another 4 percent. Two journalists are jailed for filing what authorities consider to be «false» news. (More than one type of charge may apply in individual cases.
• Print and Internet journalists make up the bulk of the census. Television journalists compose the next largest professional category, accounting for 6 percent of cases. Radio journalists account for 4 percent, and documentary filmmakers 3 percent.
• The 2008 tally reflects the second consecutive decline in the total number of jailed journalists. That said, the 2008 figure is roughly consistent with census results in each year since 2000. CPJ research shows that imprisonments rose significantly in 2001, after governments imposed sweeping national security laws in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Imprisonments stood at 81 in 2000 but have since averaged 128 in CPJ’s annual surveys.
• The United States, which is holding photographer Ibrahim Jassam without charge in Iraq, has made CPJ’s list of countries jailing journalists for the fifth consecutive year. During this period, U.S. military authorities have jailed dozens of journalists in Iraq—some for days, others for months at a time—without charge or due process. No charges have ever been substantiated in these cases.
CPJ does not apply a rigid definition of online journalism, but it carefully evaluates the work of bloggers and online writers to determine whether the content is journalistic in nature. In general, CPJ looks to see whether the content is reportorial or fact-based commentary. In a repressive society where the traditional media is restricted, CPJ takes an inclusive approach to work that is produced online.
The organization believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. CPJ has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist.
CPJ’s list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2008. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year; accounts of those cases can be found at www.cpj.org. Journalists remain on CPJ’s list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.
Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by nonstate entities, including criminal gangs, rebels, or militant groups, are not included on the imprisoned list. Their cases are classified as «missing» or «abducted.»

IJNET

Источник: http://cpj.org/reports/2008/12/cpjs-2008-prison-census-online-and-in-jail.php

The reverberations caused by the crash of the Russian economy are shaking Tajikistan at its foundation. Russian officials in recent weeks have ordered drastic cutbacks in the number of guest workers in the country. These decisions stand to have a profound impact on Tajikistan, which is heavily dependent on the remittances sent home by migrant laborers.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said recently that the reduction in guest worker quotas was a natural response to the worsening economic picture in Russia. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. But since Putin’s pronouncement, the outlook for migrant workers has only grown dimmer, underscored by the early December announcement by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov that the number of foreign laborers in the capital would need to be cut in half.
Russia hosts 1 million Tajik migrant workers, according to authorities there; unofficial figures are much higher. Any significant cut in the number of Tajiks allowed to work in Russia could have disastrous economic repercussions for the Tajik economy, as 98 percent of remittances currently sent home by Tajiks originate in Russia, according to Asian Development Bank figures. Last year, $1.8 billion was transferred into the country through official banking systems, more than twice the size of Dushanbe’s national budget. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Unofficial estimates say migrant remittances are responsible for generating up to two-thirds of the country’s GDP.
With the financial crisis, experts are cautioning that decreasing remittances — and subsequent social pressures at home — are inevitable, heaping more pain upon an already hard-pressed population. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The Asia-Plus news agency reported that in November alone, the volume of remittance transfers through Tajik banks dropped between 15 and 25 percent over the previous month.
The deputy chairman of the Tajik National Bank, Jamshed Yusupov, told an audience in Dushanbe on December 15 that the economy must brace for a shock. A «second and more powerful wave of the financial crisis is brewing,» he warned, and Tajikistan «will feel very strongly its aftermath.»
The stagnant Tajik economy is unable to absorb a flood of returning workers, observers say. Already, more than 70 percent of Tajiks live in rural areas, where unemployment is already widespread. International financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank all note that the lack of work in rural areas is the main cause of labor migration.
Shokirjon Hakimov, department head at the Tajik Institute of International Relations, feels that a sudden influx of returning of labor migrants could lead to social tension in Tajikistan. «The situation is getting worse . . . and the government has not taken any effective measures so far to create the necessary conditions for their [migrant workers’] employment inside of the country,» Hakimov told the Asia-Plus news agency. He predicts increasing social and political tension, including rising crime and a significant «fall in people’s living standards.»
Others caution that the situation is stoking a brain drain. Lidia Isamova, a journalist and expert on social issues told EurasiaNet that after several years of stability, some of Tajikistan’s smartest professionals are now looking for work abroad due to plummeting need for their skills at home. «Among the migrants of the new wave, there are qualified specialists — those who are always in demand. They can use labor quotas of the countries of ’the near abroad,’ Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states,» she said.
But some Russians say that migrants need not worry. It is unlikely, they say, that Russians will be eager to fill the menial jobs that Tajiks and other Central Asian citizens often performed. As politicians last week responded to Putin’s calls for measures limiting foreign work permits, the Russian daily Vremya Novostei commented that such statements are merely lip service. «Statements by the leaders of the state on the necessity of reducing the labor quotas are nothing but reverence to trade unions and United Russia,» read the paper’s editorial page.
Even so, mass layoffs are occurring across the country. According to Russia’s Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development, since the beginning of October almost 30,000 people have been laid off; and hundreds of thousands more have been forced to accept pay cuts.

Editor’s Note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance journalist based in Dushanbe.

Posted December 16, 2008 © Eurasianet

Konstantin Parshin

Источник: http://eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav121608.shtml

The Tajik media reported that on 27 November, the Tajik Unitary Enterprise “Tajik Aluminum Company” (TALCO) halted its case against the ANSOL company. The case was initiated in December 2004 against former managers of Tajikistan’s biggest enterprise and the main source of the national income. The hearings were held in the London High Court. ANSOL has also renounced its claims against TALCO.
According to Radio Ozodi (Radio Liberty Tajik service), the TALCO officials stated that the ANSOL company in the period from 1996 to 2004 embezzled $500 million, which belonged to TALCO. ANSOL in response claimed that TALCO owes ANSOL an amount of $130 million.
TALCO is the only aluminum smelter in Central Asia and one of the biggest enterprises in its kind in the world. According to Russian information agencies, in 2007, TALCO produced 421 thousand tons of aluminum, and in 2008, the plant’s financial turnover will amount to $830 million.
Over the last several months, a number of international and Tajik media have reprinted articles by John Helmer, a well-known international economist who lives and works in Moscow. Helmer describe in details corruption and economic machinations in TALCO. Referring to the IMF reports and the court hearings in London, Helmer analyzes how the company’s revenues are being stolen. The author states that in 2006-2007, only 17 percent of the revenues went to the national treasury, and during the period from 2005 till now, Tajikistan has lost $1,145 billion – the money went away through tolling schemes and off-shores.
These figures are pretty high, given that in 2007, Tajikistan’s national budget (excluding international aid) was $610 million, and the current external debt has reached $1,5 billion. According to the Western media, the Tajik authorities have spent – according to different sources – from L.s.d.90 million to $200 million on the investigation (this amount mainly includes expenditures on lawyers, court hearings, etc.). It goes without saying that the money has been taken from Tajikistan’s national treasury.
Details of the recent settlement in London have not been made public. The Tajik media do not dare to “tread of forbidden ground”; the TALCO officials refuse to talk with foreign correspondents; and Nazarov, who lives in London and possesses decent property there, also declined to comment.
John Helmer in his latest article posted on Asia Times Online (http://www.atimes.com/) says that “…the ramifications of their [TALCO] victory have only started to be counted – in Dushanbe, at Rakhmon’s presidential palace, and in the board rooms of several international organizations, whose executives have been implicated in the frauds alleged in the court testimony, and documented in the evidence presented so far”.
Helmer continues: “The overnight agreement by the lawyers puts a stop to further disclosures in London, but the evidence remains for possible prosecution in Oslo, and internal investigations at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who have been backing Rakhmon in the litigation that has now failed”.

In June 2008, the IMF issued a report ordering an independent international audit of TALCO’s accounts and ordered the establishment of “a special monitoring unit at the ministry of finance”, whose mandate will include identification in TALCO’s books of “untapped tax revenues and hitherto hidden contingent liabilities.”
The TALCO case is not an “unpleasant exception”. In spring 2008, the IMF in its report called the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) insolvent. During several years, the NBT management provided the international financial institutions with false data about Tajikistan’s national reserve funds in order to receive new soft loans.
Experts indicate that the Tajik public at large is very apathetic; everybody minds his own business, even when the issues concern huge economic or political scandals. Editors and correspondents are guided by the principles of self-censorship being afraid that their outlets would be closed by the authorities, or someone would be accused of libel, offence or defamation of a public official. There are several articles in Tajikistan’s Criminal Code establishing criminal responsibility for such kind of “crimes”.

Konstantin Parshin

Источник: NANSMIT

Washington — Improved knowledge of human rights is giving young reporters an additional tool as they approach a variety of stories, says Peter Spielmann, founder of the Human Rights Reporting Seminar at Columbia University’s Graduate School for Journalism, one of the most respected journalism schools in the United States.

Spielmann, a veteran journalist who launched the seminar in 2000, told America.gov: “I think that, at most, 20 percent of my work has had some human rights aspect, even if I didn’t think of it in those terms at that time.”

Looking back on his career, Spielmann, who is currently an editor and supervisor on the Associated Press’ North America Desk, said it was the crisis in East Timor during the late 1990s that really raised for him the question about the effect principled journalism could have on dangerous, abusive situations. That crisis also inspired Spielmann to develop the Human Rights Reporting Seminar.

“The militia situation in East Timor benefited from fairly prompt and dramatic media coverage,” Spielmann said. The Australian government was impelled by the publicity, he said, to send a peacekeeping force that helped disband the militia and to encourage the Timorese government to pursue a truth and reconciliation process.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRINCIPLES

“Human rights give reporters a litmus test, a framework to work with,” Spielmann said. “It gives you a broad perspective. When you get into these confusing, individual situations, you have some principles to fall back on — some commandments, as it were.”

Those “commandments,” he said, are the broadly agreed upon values as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

Spielmann, who worked as an AP correspondent at the United Nations for five years, said reporters also should be guided by other major documents defining human rights, such as France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man, the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the British Magna Carta.

“These establish standards against which government, corporations, entities like the United Nations, and other institutions can be evaluated. Are the people in their care receiving their civil, political, social and cultural rights?”

Spielmann said he devoted one session of his seminar to the trauma journalists must face when covering wars and other violent events. Here again, human rights knowledge helps.

“I think if you have in mind a number of principles that you believe in, it helps you to live through the exposure to difficult and disturbing situations.

“It helps, I hope, that despite what you are seeing in front of you, there is such a thing as decency; there are moral principles that one can argue for and try to uphold and even enforce, if it gets to that,” he said.

DEVELOPING A PASSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Although he still advises graduate students, Spielmann turned over the Human Rights Reporting Seminar to Bill Berkeley in 2006.

As a journalist, Berkeley has worked mostly in Africa and covered events dealing with genocide, torture, summary killings, state tyranny and state terror for major newspapers and magazines. He also worked for several years for a human rights organization investigating human rights abuses in southern Africa. He has written two books about Africa and is working on another about Iran.

“A major objective for the class for me is to turn students on to great journalism on human rights and great reporters who have written profoundly on the subject,” Berkeley told America.gov. “The major thrust of my course is to get students fired up and give them a sense of the power of the stories and the possibility of storytelling.”

Apartheid in South Africa initially triggered Berkeley’s interest in human rights.

“I was somebody who found racism profoundly offensive but also fascinating. I was drawn to the struggle going on in the 1980s in South Africa,” he said.

Berkeley said the work of journalists can and does reach decisionmakers who can make a difference in world affairs and the area of human rights. He noted the satisfaction he felt when former U.S. President Bill Clinton read and praised Berkeley’s book explaining the Rwanda genocide.

“As dispassionate and cynical as they claim to be, ultimately what motivates many journalists is the fantasy of saving the world,” Berkeley said.

US Embassy in Dushanbe

Источник: US Embassy in Dushanbe

Tajik media professionals are concerned about the recent amendments in the domestic Criminal Code establishing responsibility for “libel” and “defamation”. Eight articles of the Criminal Code have been amended regardless of numerous appeals by the media and public organizations. Moreover, the lawmakers have “equated” online outlets with printing and broadcasting media.
“The new legal provisions are ridiculous, — says an IT specialist from a web providing company in Dushanbe. — It is extremely difficult – almost impossible – to trace online authors. Technically speaking, the authorities would need to encharge the local Internet providers to hunt down the sources, from which “aspersive postings” are coming to the web”.
According to the Asia Plus weekly, during the last three years, public officials and government bodies have initiated 8 criminal cases and 14 civil suits against journalists and editors. All these cases are related to the journalists’ professional activities and “facts of defamation” in their publications where they dared to criticize certain public servants.
The most recent is the case of Dodojon Atovullo, a 53-year old journalist, the founder of the first private newspaper in Tajikistan and the leader of the Vatandor (Patriot) opposition movement in exile. For many years, Atovullo has been living abroad – mainly in Russia and Germany. In October, he decided to move from Moscow to France apprehending revenge from the Tajik authorities, who called him “information terrorist” and promised to bring him to justice by any available means. In his newspaper “Charogi Rouz” (it mainly exists in online version), Atovullo unmasks corruption in Tajikistan. The authorities accuse the dissident – inter alia – of defamation of the President’s family and attempts to undermine the constitutional order in Tajikistan.
Media communities and human rights watchdogs say that the recent alterations in the legislation expand possibilities for persecution of journalists for “slander and insult”. Any publication containing criticism of the power can be seen as a deliberate offence. These limitations only strengthen self-censorship, which has become commonplace in the Tajik media. The New York-based NGO Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has invoked the Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon to set a veto on the introduction of these amendments in the legislation.
A similar concern was voiced recently by Miklosh Kharashti, the OSCE Representative for Freedom of Media in Vienna. He said that such concepts as “the Internet”, “information” and “dissemination” in the new Tajik legislation are very nebulous. “This might lead to wide interpretation and discretionary application of the new provisions for criminalization of discussions on socially important themes”, — said Kharashti. He called the Tajik authorities to canceling the recent amendments in the Criminal Code limiting the freedom of speech. He also spoke about the necessity of bringing Tajikistan’s legislation to conformity with the country’s membership commitments to OSCE.
The OSCE experts repeatedly criticized the Tajik system of registration of media outlets, and emphasized that artificial impediments and multi-staged process of registration impede the development of mass media in the country. Similar concerns about the freedom of expression in Tajikistan have been voiced by authoritative international NGOs, such as the Freedom House.
Nuriddin Karshibayev, Chair of Tajikistan’s National Association of Independent Media (NANSMIT) said that “the overall situation with freedom of expression in the country has not had essential positive changes over the last years, while artificial obstacles created by bureaucracy of relevant state agencies with regard to licensing and registration of new media entities interfere with development of new independent mass media”. Karshibayev says that the two major concerns among his colleagues are the lack of access to information and the licensing of broadcasting entities.
According to NANSMIT, more than a dozen of private TV and radio companies have been waiting for their licenses for years. In response to numerous complaints, the licensing commission under the State Committee on Television and Radio says that “applicants cannot properly fill in the application forms” or “unable to collect and present needed registration documents”. The NANSMIT Monitoring Service interviewed several managers of Tajikistan’s private TV and radio stations, who complained that the licensing commission servants impose ridiculous technical and logistical requirements, which are impossible to fulfill. Last year, the licensing officials carried out a raid at two private radio stations in Dushanbe, where they were checking even play lists, “recommending” to remove certain music (which they personally didn’t like) from the air.
Tajik media organizations repeatedly applied to the government and parliament with a proposal to discharge the licensing body since its very existence is not justified – over the last several years, the commission gave only two new licenses to small provincial broadcasting companies. Media professionals also suggested to replace the commission with a public council – similarly to what has been done in many of the CIS countries.
However, broadcasters keep fighting for their rights. In October, the Dushanbe Economic Court held a hearing on the statement of claim from the Somoniyon TV (the first private Tajik TV company founded in 1993) against the State TV and Radio Committee. All eleven members of the licensing commission were called to the court as codefendants.
Managers of TV Somoniyon stated that the ungrounded termination of its broadcasting license has led to a material loss in the amount of 88 thousand Somoni (about $26 thousand). The court proceedings are under way, and if the judges determine the guilt of the licensing body it will dilapidate itself.

According to the newly adopted amendments in Tajikistan’s Criminal Code, “libel, offence or false information, as well as indecent words humiliating human dignity and disseminated not only via public speeches and media, but also through the Internet, are considered a crime in Tajikistan”. The law prescribes compulsory physical work (180-240 hours), or penalty in the amount from 500 to 1 thousand minimal monthly wages, or imprisonment up to two years.

Defamation is not considered a crime in the US legislation. Criminal responsibility for libel and offence is not prescribed in most of the EU States. Over the last several years, a number of post-Soviet countries – Estonia, the Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan have abolished criminal punishment for defamation. Legislation in these countries establishes only civil responsibility for dissemination of slanderous information.

Konstantin Parshin

Источник: NANSMIT

In a recent development that passed largely unnoticed, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has ranked Tajikistan in its 2008 Press Freedom Index, as having the highest level of media freedom among the five Central Asian states.

In the index published on October 22, Tajikistan ranked 106th among 222 countries with a score of 25.5 (on a scale of 1-100, 1 being the best and 100 the worst score), ahead of Georgia (ranked 120th with 31.25), Kazakhstan (125th; 35.22), Russia (141st; 47.50), Azerbaijan (150th;53.63), Belarus (514th;58.33), Uzbekistan (162nd;62.70), Iran (166th;80.33) and Turkmenistan (171st.95.50). Of the former Soviet republics, only the Baltic states, Armenia, Ukraine, and Moldova ranked higher than Tajikistan.

Some might consider that Tajikistan «hit the jackpot» undeservedly. But there are in fact solid grounds for the ranking that emerged. More important, and more worrying, is the fact that it is becoming progressively more difficult to evaluate objectively the media situation across the former Soviet Union, given that the governments in question have had 16 years in which to perfect the art of creating a democratic image that does not reflect reality.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted that trend in a report titled «Despots Masquerading as Democrats» (http://hrw.org/wr2k8/introduction/index.htm) released in January 2008. That report documents the way in which many authoritarian regimes have succeeded in crafting a favorable image by means of electoral fraud, sidelining and discouraging the political opposition, and silencing the media. The situation in Tajikistan fits that pattern perfectly.

RSF says its report «does not look at human rights violation in general, just press freedom violations.» That is probably why it fails to mention significant trends in the relevant countries that could shed more light on the situation as a whole. Explaining how the index was compiled, RSF says it sends a questionnaire to its partner organizations, journalists, researchers, and human rights activists.

RSF’s Tajik partner is the National Association of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT), an NGO founded in 1999. NANSMIT head Nuriddin Qarshiboev says he does not agree with the country’s score.

Little Sign Of Improvement

«There was no improvement of press freedom in Tajikistan,» he said in an interview with RFE/RL’s Tajik Service. He pointed to two new negative trends, alongside the existing deep self-censorship that emerged during the 1992-97 civil war in which some 60 Tajik journalists were killed.

First, the government is increasingly worried by the availability of the Internet and has criminalized libel and defamation in cyberspace. Immediately after the passage of that legislation in July 2007, three young journalists who had cited information from an Internet site were brought to trial and risk being jailed for two years. Second, under the new law on access to information, government agencies have 40 days in which to respond to written requests for information. In his annual state-of-the-nation address, President Emomali Rahmon called on the government to make the mass media more efficient in «patriotic education of the people.»

According to Rajabi Mirzo, the former editor of the now closed newspaper «Ruzi nav,» the authorities have learned several ways of limiting press freedom unobtrusively. «We have many more so-called independent newspapers now, but many of them are serving the regime under unwritten gentlemen’s agreements,» Mirzo says. The scandalous closure of «Ruzi nav» in 2004 was condemned by many international observers, and the fact that Mirzo cannot register and print another newspaper could in itself be considered a violation of press freedom.

Mirzo says that international organizations are giving higher scores to Tajikistan not because the situation in that country has improved, but in comparison with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and also because conditions have deteriorated in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Dodojon Atovullo, the founder of «Charogi ruz,» the first independent newspaper in Tajikistan, was forced to leave Moscow for Paris last month due to threats by the Tajik authorities, who opened a criminal case against him because of his most recent interviews and his «newspaper in exile,» which is available on the Internet and in hard copies smuggled into Tajikistan.

Tajik prosecutors are also investigating the professional activities of Uzbek-speaking journalist Tursunali Aliev, who published an article criticizing the mayor of a small town. It goes without saying that no one has the right to say or write anything negative about President Rahmon and a select group of senior government officials.

Dozens of journalists have repeatedly complained to international organizations that the Radio and Television License Committee is preventing some 25 new radio and TV stations from launching their broadcasts by not granting them the required license. So in their view, the RSF index constitutes a weak international response to the media situation in Tajikistan, if not a wrong one.

In past years, negative RSF rankings have helped generate international support for embattled Tajik journalists who demand their rights be respected. But this year’s ranking serves to help the Tajik authorities in their roundabout approach to press «freedom.» Having consistently rejected previous international reports on freedom of the press, this year for the first time they called the RSF index «accurate and very balanced.»

Saidali Siddiq, who heads the information and analysis department within the presidential office and is one of President Rahmon’s image-makers, even reasoned that if not a single journalist was killed, jailed, or beaten over the past year, there are no grounds to challenge that rating. But surely freedom of the press means more than just refraining from killing or jailing journalists?

Salimjon Aioubov is a broadcaster with RFE/RL’s Tajik Service. The views expressed in the commentary are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

Salimjon Aioubov, RFE/RL

Источник: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Fearing that Russia would grant Tajikistan’s extradition request, Dodojon Atovullo, the exiled editor-in-chief of a Tajik opposition newspaper and the leader of Vatandor movement, has fled to Paris.

In an interview with a EurasiaNet correspondent, Atovullo said he decided to leave Russia after discovering that Tajik security agents had reportedly arrived in Moscow with the intention of taking him into custody. Authorities in Dushanbe had issued a warrant in late September for Atovullo’s arrest. The warrant accuses Atovullo of slandering President Imomali Rahmon and carrying out anti-state activities. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

«It’s good that I am here now, in Europe, safe and sound,» Atovullo said after his arrival in Paris.

Atovullo’s escape was facilitated by possession of a German travel document, which he obtained in 2001, when he was granted a German residence permit. Russian authorities made no attempt to prevent him from boarding a Paris-bound flight recently. The fact that a German television crew was there at the airport to record his departure may have helped avert an incident, he suggested.

Deciding to leave Moscow may have been a spur-of-the-moment action, but he revealed that he started thinking about the need to leave quickly when he got word that Tajik officials were mulling whether to renew their efforts to bring him back to Dushanbe. «I pre-planned some appointments with French politicians, diplomats, correspondents and NGOs to discuss Tajikistan’s problems,» says Atovullo.

France is likely only a transit country for Atovullo. He intends to move soon to Hamburg, where he will wait for the «whirlwind» in Moscow to abate.

Atovullo hopes to return to Moscow in the not-so-distant future. He explained that because Tajiks can travel to Moscow relatively easily, he is able to be more effective as a Tajik opposition activist when operating in the Russian capital.

«My stay in Europe has numerous disadvantages,» he said. «First of all, our voices reach Tajikistan later from Europe rather than Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Tajik migrants work in Russia. There are many teachers, doctors, engineers and other professionals among them. These people could constitute the backbone of a [opposition] movement. That’s why Dushanbe feared my stay in Russia. There, I could keep in touch with the Tajik diaspora directly.»

Atovullo revealed that representatives of the Rahmon administration approached him in 2007 to explore a political deal. «Last year, Rahmon’s closest aids negotiated with me almost for six months,» he said. «They tried to convince me to return to Tajikistan, to get a portfolio or pocket a huge sum of money in exchange for my silence. After I gave them cold shoulder they resumed my criminal case.»

The opposition leader assailed Rahmon’s administration saying that if drastic changes aren’t made to alleviate the severe social and economic stress that the country is enduring, the country could make a sudden turn toward instability. Rahmon in recent years has stifled mainstream, democratically oriented political opposition groups. That has created the dangerous possibility that a «Tajik Taliban» could emerge to fill a leadership void, Atovullo claimed. «Today our young [people in Tajikistan] have nothing else to do except to attend mosques and listen to populist Mullahs,» he said.

He added that Rahmon’s efforts to concentrate power in his own hands had thwarted the development of a new generation of leaders that could guide the country’s economic development. «This is a lost generation,» Atovullo said, referring to 30- and 40-somethings in Tajikistan. «There are some young brainy people among them who could have been our best ministers, MPs and politicians. But nobody knows them. In any dictatorship, people are unaware of their own hidden assets.»

Editor’s Note: Kambiz Arman is the pseudonym for a Tajik journalist.

© Eurasianet

Kambiz Arman, EurasiaNet

Источник: http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav100608.shtml

Almost one-third of Tajikistan’s 6.7 million inhabitants may not have enough to eat this winter, United Nations experts worry. In an attempt to avert an emergency, the UN has issued a fresh global appeal for assistance.

The Tajik government has developed a 64-point program in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the hardships experienced last winter, when many areas of the country were left without adequate supplies of heat and electricity, to go along with a scarcity of food. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Since then, the country has experienced further adversity — in particular a severe drought and a locust infestation — that has devastated crops. Grain harvest totals for 2008 are down between 30 percent and 40 percent over the previous year. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The combination of unfavorable circumstances has experts preparing for a worst-case scenario. Gabriella Waaijman, the Almaty-based regional disaster response advisor for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), estimated that 2.2 million Tajiks face «increased food insecurity,» with about 800,000 vulnerable to famine conditions this winter.

On September 25, the UN issued a new Human Food Security Appeal that seeks to raise $34.7 million in emergency aid for Tajiks. «The immediate aim of the appeal is to provide a temporary safety net to the most vulnerable poor people in urban and rural areas through the provision of food and cash,» Waaijman said in an email interview. «The appeal also aims to avoid a prolonged relief situation by supporting the agriculture sector through the next planting and harvest cycle and the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure.»

The UN assistance program can also plug potential gaps in the 64-point government response plan. «Preparedness planning is focusing on support to critical health care facilities, schools and targeting assistance to vulnerable households in the form of shelter and heating materials for ’one warm room,’» Waaijman wrote. «While the food security situation is the most immediate concern and the focus of the present appeal, additional funding may later be required to fill gaps in the government’s plan of action for the winter.»

The latest UN appeal runs from this October through December 2009. It follows an appeal that ran from February through August and sought $25 million. The actual total raised was $15 million, or 57 percent of the target. At the same time, $21 million was raised outside the formal appeal framework.

Thus far, the September appeal has generated only a tepid response, attracting $1.6 million, or roughly 4 percent of the target. Even though the appeal still has a long time to run, the slow start could seriously damage its chances for success in alleviating hunger. «The provision of agricultural inputs particularly is a time-critical intervention, meaning that these interventions need to begin immediately in order to yield results in the spring of 2009,» Waaijman said. «Delays in funding compromise the ability to meet the deadline for this planting season. While food and cash support to the most vulnerable have less strict deadlines, it is imperative that distributions take place before the winter period starts.»

One cause for optimism is that the President Imomali Rahmon’s administration has been working closely with international agencies to address hunger issues. «They [Tajik officials] realized that they have a problem and are looking to mitigate it, which we always view as a very positive development,» said Stephanie Bunker, a New York-based OCHA representative. Another important factor is that water levels in reservoirs, which dipped to perilously low levels last winter, have rebounded. This raises hope that the country could generate enough hydropower to avoid the same kind of blackout conditions that kept many Tajiks in the dark for much of last winter. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Some political experts believe that the Tajik government could prove more a hindrance that a help to international relief efforts. One of the skeptics is Eric McGlinchey, a professor at George Mason University, who suggested that Rahmon may be more interested in maintaining his own grip on power than he is in promoting the best interests on nation. «Recent years haven’t inspired confidence in Tajik macroeconomic policy,» said McGlinchey. «The massive presidential palace in Dushanbe, for example, is an immense spending project that is not in the best interests of the country.»

Perhaps the most egregious instance of government malfeasance occurred in the spring of 2008, when the International Monetary Fund demanded repayment in almost $48 million in loans after it discovered that the Tajik National Bank had deliberately misled the global lender about the state of the country’s finances. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Editor’s Note: Andrew Iacobucci is an editorial assistant at EurasiaNet.

Posted October 7, 2008 © Eurasianet

Andrew Iacobucci, EurasiaNet

Источник: http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav100708.shtml