By Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW – A Tajik opposition activist is in intensive care after being attacked in central Moscow and stabbed with a knife several times by an unidentified attacker late on January 12.

Dodojon Atovulloev, a 56-year-old Tajik dissident journalist in exile and outspoken critic of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, has undergone surgery in Moscow’s Sklifosovsky Hospital.

A brother-in-law who lives in Moscow, Doro Zabehov, told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service that Atovulloev had been «under constant threats and pressures» for years.

«Even since he left Tajikistan, he has been persecuted,» Zabehov said. «We knew there were constant risks to his life, but he would never talk about them. He wouldn’t tell us who his enemies were, so I won’t speculate.»

Police discovered Atovulloev with two knife wounds on Komsomolsky Prospekt in central Moscow.

Contracted Attack?

An unidentified police official told the Interfax news agency that the attack may have been contracted. The source said someone had arranged to meet Atovulloev on his own at the «Viadzhio» Italian restaurant near his house, where he was attacked.

Atovulloev’s driver indicated that he last saw Atovulloev’ when he dropped him off at home earlier that evening.

“We went to two places and then I took him home,» he said. «He went in. Then I got a phone call last night and we all went to the hospital.”

The police have launched a criminal case under legislation covering the “premeditated infliction of grievous bodily harm.”

Police apprehended a man who was found with blood on his hands within hours of the attack but released him after concluding that he was not connected to the attack. Interfax quoted a Moscow police spokesman as saying that closed-circuit television footage had cleared the suspect of involvement.

There are no other known suspects at this time, police said.

‘Colorful Figure’

Police are also analyzing CCTV footage and will question Atovulloev once his condition improves.

Atovulloev left Tajikistan in December 1992. He has since lived mainly in Moscow, but spent one year in Germany as well.

He has remained active as a journalist critical of the Tajik authorities throughout.

Atovulloev last visited Tajikistan in 2004, but left abruptly after three days under threat of arrest.

He is the owner of “Charogi Ruz,” one of Tajikistan’s first independent newspapers, which is critical of President Rahmon.

Daniil Kislov, editor in chief of Ferghana.ru, a Moscow-based independent Central Asian news website, told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that Atovulloev’s safe haven in Moscow has long been an irritant for the Tajik government.

«Dodojon Atovulloev has become a dissident who is inconvenient for the regime [in Tajikistan] and he remains one of Rahmon’s uncompromising enemies in the information sphere,» Kislov said. «He has always used the strongest terms and definitions with regard to the Tajik president, openly calling him a drug baron and an alcoholic.»

Recently, he was one of the most outspoken critics of Rahmon during the spat between Russia and Tajikistan in November over the jailing of two pilots, one of them Russian, in Dushanbe.

Atovulloev was reportedly the first to suggest that the pilots were jailed because the son of a relative of the Tajik president had been arrested in Moscow.

Fierce rhetoric between the two countries followed and Moscow deported hundreds of Tajik migrant workers. Tajikistan eventually pardoned the two pilots, and the criminal case on charges of drug trafficking was subsequently dropped against the son of a Tajik official in Russia.

Dushanbe has requested Atovulloev’s extradition numerous times, but Russia has refused.

Atovulloev is a colorful figure in the Tajik opposition and gained a reputation in the 1980s as a “breath of fresh air” for his articles in the periodical «Javononi Tojikiston» («Tajikistan’s Youth»), which were critical of the authorities and stood out against the otherwise monochrome local Soviet press.

Contacted by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, Tajik lawmaker Suhrob Sharipov downplayed Dodojon’s role and impact, calling him one of many opposition figures living in Russia.

«Dodojon Atovulloev doesn’t have any weight as a political figure; he has no impact on Tajikistan’s politics,» Sharipov said. «He is an opposition figure, a journalist who left for Russia many years ago and has been working there since. I don’t see any reason why [Tajikistan] would want to assassinate him.»

with additional reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Farangis Najibullah and RFE/RL’s Tajik, Russian, and Uzbek services

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_opposition_leader_atovuloyev_stabbed_moscow/24450461.html

Journalists can attend a seminar in Finland.

The University of Helsinki hosts a one-day seminar on crisis, trauma and journalism.

The seminar aims to analyze the coverage and reporting of crises in the media from a perspective of media research and ethics. Topics include how to encounter people in distress, how to shoot visual material of them and how to interview them.

Other topics include how news media get organized during a crisis, the experiences of a field reporter in connection to the newsroom and why some disasters become media spectacles.

The seminar will be held January 27.

For more information, click here: http://www.helsinki.fi/crisisandcommunication/network/seminar_crisistraumajournalism.html

http://ijnet.org/opportunities/journalism-seminar-crisis-reporting-offered

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Journalists from the independent online television station Stan-TV say police in the restive city of Zhanaozen are hindering the media’s work, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

Stan-TV chief editor Asel Limzhanova, along with journalists Zhuldyz Toleu and Qasym Amanzhol, said in Almaty on January 11 that local police and security forces have been trying to block their coverage of the mass strike of oil workers in the western city of Zhanaozen since May.

They said the tension between police and journalists worsened after the deadly clashes between striking oil workers and police took place in the city on December 16.

The Stan-TV journalists added that they and their relatives had been under pressure since last summer as they started covering the standoff between oil workers and the OzenMunaiGaz oil company.

After the deadly clashes last month in Zhanaozen and the nearby town of Shetpe that left at least 17 protesters dead, the Stan-TV journalists and their relatives were summoned more often to police for questioning.

«As we are currently under police scrutiny we would like to state publicly that we do not use drugs, we are not associated with any extremist group, and do not possess any weapons,» Limzhanova said.

The three also stated that they have officially called on President Nursultan Nazarbaev to protect them from security officials’ and law enforcement officers’ «lawlessness.»

The Almaty-based Stan-TV makes video reports from the five Central Asian countries and posts them on its website. It is associated with Kazakh businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is wanted in Kazakhstan on criminal charges but lives in self-imposed exile in England.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakh_tv_journalists_complain_of_police_harassment/24449015.html

The International Federation oOf Journalists (IFJ), says more than 100 journalists or other media staff were killed in 2011 – an increase in comparison with 2010.

According to the IFJ, violence against the media was worst in 2011 in Pakistan, Iraq and Mexico, with 11 media deaths reported in each country.

The organizaton says a total of 106 journalists were killed in 2011, compared with 94 in 2010.

It said that 20 more journalists or other media staff died in accidents and natural disasters in 2011.

The IFJ has appealed to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to lead an effort to better protect journalists, saying many governments around the world “are in denial or indifferent to what has become a regular pattern of targeted killings of journalists.”

The IFJ says it represents more than 600,000 journalists in more than 100 countries around the world.

compiled from agency reports

http://www.rferl.org/content/media_deaths_rose_in_2011/24439112.html

ASTANA — Kazakh media NGOs and international experts say that country’s new broadcast law would put restrictions on the freedom of information, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

The draft law — initiated by the Communications and Information Ministry and passed by the Senate on December 28 — has been sent to President Nursultan Nazarbaev for final approval.

It requires all foreign television and radio stations to be fully registered with an official Kazakh entity and that 50 percent of the broadcasts of foreign channels consist of domestic content by 2018.

The Kazakh human rights organization Adil Soz, the National Association of Kazakh Broadcasters, and the NGO Internews-Kazakhstan wrote a letter to Nazarbaev requesting that he postpone adopting the law until after parliamentary elections scheduled for January 15.

The letter was signed by some 40 Kazakh media NGOs and it expressed concern about media restrictions within the draft law.

Dunja Mijatovic, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, also expressed concern about the legislation in a statement issued on December 28.

She said the draft law would violate the rights of citizens to freely receive and impart information and it increases state control over the electronic media.

The statement also noted that the recommendations made to the Kazakh government and parliament members by the OSCE and Kazakh civil society organizations during the last several months were not considered in the final writing of the legislation.

Mijatovic sent a letter to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry on December 12 in which she called on Nazarbaev to veto the draft law.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakh_senate_approves_controversial_broadcasting_law/24438533.html

DUSHANBE — Huge billboards urging people to denounce corruption have been prominently placed in front of two Tajik universities this month, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

The billboards, in the capital, Dushanbe, depict two hands: one extended hand offering cash with another hand rejecting the apparent bribe by pushing the money back.

«We Say NO to Bribery in the Education Sector,» read the billboards, which appeared ahead of the winter exam season at Tajik universities.

The billboards were prepared by Tajikistan’s anticorruption agency along with the Dushanbe offices of the UN Development Fund and Britain’s Department for International Development.

Corruption is rampant in Tajikistan, and the country’s education sector is particularly notorious for its widespread bribery.

Several students at Tajikistan’s National University (TNU) told RFE/RL that some professors demand a bribe in order to pass a test and there is even a concrete price for each exam and test, ranging from 30 to 100 somonis (approximately $6-$20).

In a recent meeting with students at TNU, Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov admitted that bribery exists in Tajik universities. But he blamed the students’ parents for the problem.

«It’s common knowledge which professors at which schools accept bribes,» Rahmonov said. «It wasn’t like this before. It’s the parents’ fault. I personally heard some of them saying they would agree to pay a bribe as long as their children pass their exams.»

TNU student Abubakr Mulloev told RFE/RL that he hopes the anticorruption billboards will prompt students and professors to think twice before giving or receiving bribes.

Mulloev said «many university professors — although not all of them — have let students know how much their exams and tests will cost.»

Tajikistan is ranked 152 in the 2011 Corruption Index of Transparency International, a body that annually ranks countries on their perceived levels of corruption.

http://www.rferl.org/content/anticorruption_billboards_erected_tajikistan/24438555.html

Professional and amateur photographers can participate in a contest on human rights.

The annual FotoEvidence Book Award will recognize a documentary photographer whose project demonstrates courage and commitment in addressing a violation of human rights, a significant injustice or an assault on human dignity.

The winning project will be published in book form, as part of a series of FotoEvidence books dedicated to photographers whose commitment and courage create an awareness of social injustice. The photographer will receive royalties on book sales.

Applications are accepted all year until the February 15 deadline, submissions received after are entered in the 2013 contest. Photographers should submit up to 15 images from one project along with a $50 entry fee. (That fee may also be waived by writing to contest organizers.)

For more information, click here: http://www.fotoevidence.com/book-award

http://ijnet.org/opportunities/documentary-photo-contest-open-worldwide

Journalists who want to improve their writing and reporting skills can apply for fellowships to a course in London.

Applicants must be currently working as a journalist or regular contributor to media organizations. They must be able to demonstrate a commitment to a career in journalism in their country, must have at least two years’ professional experience and have a good level in spoken and written English.

Full bursaries for journalists from the developing world/countries in political transition working for organizations with no resources for training. Bursaries include return air travel (economy class), accommodation and a modest living allowance.

Part-funded bursaries are available for journalists from the developing world/countries in political transition who work for organizations that have limited resources for training, in this instance Thomson Reuters Foundation waives the tuition cost and you will be expected to cover travel and accommodation costs. In exceptional circumstances, journalists from the developed world will be considered for part-funded bursaries.

Thomson Reuters Foundation also offers training for journalists from any region from an organization that has the resources to fully cover the costs of the program.

For more information, click here. Deadline for applications is January 6, the course will be held in March.

http://ijnet.org/opportunities/reuters-offers-fellowships-writing-reporting-class-worldwide

In December 2011, the NANSMIT Monitoring Service received 18 reports. Thirteen of them describe the factual situation in the media in the light of socio-legal and political environment; four reports describe direct violations of rights of media professionals; and one report describes a conflict and accusations against the media and journalists.

I. POLITICAL, SOCIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL CLIMATE IN THE COUNTRY DEFINING THE FACTUAL SITUATION IN THE MEDIA

1. Public speeches and statements of superior officials defining the factual situation in the mass media

12 December
Sukhrob Shariopov, Director, President’s Strategic Research Center, Dushanbe

On 9 December, in Dushanbe, at the presentation of a sociological survey on perception of corruption in the Tajik society, Sukhrob Sharipov stated that the mass media should be more active in countering this phenomenon.

“Within the framework of this study, we analyzed the content of publications in various printing outlets and came to the conclusion that the problems of corruption are covered insufficiently,” — said Sharipov.

The directors of the government think tank also mentioned a possibility of mobilizing online resources and use the Internet as a tool for public awareness campaigns and fighting against corruption.

2. Factual situation in the media

14 December
Nigokh weekly, Dushanbe

On 14 December 2011, the information-political weekly Nigokh celebrated its fifth anniversary. The newspaper was founded by the chairman of the public organization INDEM Saimudin Dustov. The well-known Tajik journalist Nurali Davlat was the first editor of Nigokh. These two persons managed to gather a team of young and talented authors.

These five years have been pretty challenging. The authorities tried to shut down the paper, but Nogokh would always come off with honor from such situations. Other media professionals helped Nigokh survive; in 2010, Tajik journalists created the 29 September Committee to protect their civil and professional rights when the government cramped down upon several media.

Nigokh remains adherent to its motto: “Objective information and professional analysis for active citizens”.

21 December
Kosimi Bekmukhammad, Dushanbe

“Sticking to the principles of political correctness would protect Tajik journalists and the media they work for from troubles – since some statements in publications could become grounds for lawsuits initiated by influential persons and government officials”, — says Kosim Mukhammad in his article “Political correctness and the winter” (Nigokh, #40, 21.12.2011).

The author also indicates that some rude remarks about Russia and Uzbekistan are probably caused by accusations and ideological attacks of these two states’ media against Tajikistan.

28 December
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Ozodi (RFE/RL) launched an article titled “In 2011, the Tajik independent media replaced the opposition”. Observers state that the growing pressure on the media, limited access to information and the cancellation of regular press conferences in every government agency (by the president) have forced media professionals to be more vigilant, active and audacious in their work.

28 December
Johann Bir, Reporters Without Borders, Paris

Radio Ozodi quoted Johann Bir, head of the Europe and Central Asia division of the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders as saying that in the foreseeable future and in conditions of the absence of the real political opposition in Tajikistan, the Tajik media can become a serious force.

29 December
Nuriddin Karshibaev, Chairman, NANSMIT

The Tojikiston weekly (#52, 29 December 2011) quoted Nuriddin Karshiboev, chairman of the Tajik National Assiciation of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT) speculating on the issues of political correctness in the national press.

Karshiboev said that NANSMIT has conducted its own study оn this issue. The analysis shows that many Tajik media produce emotional articles instigating national or ethnic enmity. Such articles are quite dangerous for the multiethnic country.

3. Legal amendments and changes affecting the media

14 December
All media

The Ministry of Culture demands all mass media acting as a structural unit of any company, enterprise, etc. to reregister. According to the Millat weekly (#50, 14 December 2011), this initiative of the government has forced Tajik media professionals and entrepreneurs to get together to discuss the problem and develop a potential solution. The Ministry of Culture sent a letter to editors and publishers saying that the initiative was launched by the Tax Committee, which refers to the law “On printing and other mass media” obliging every editing board to register as an individual company. Otherwise, they will be considered illegitimate.

Experts say that the existing media law was adopted as an ideological document in the early 1990-s. It is in conflict with many laws including the Civil Code, which defines organizational and legal norms for any entity. Thus, the media law cannot be seen as the main document in this controversial issue. A similar opinion was recently expressed by Mr. Salimzoda, chairman of Majlisi Namoyandagon, Majlisi Oli. Salimzoda said that the new draft law is on its final stage of development, and it will be adopted in the near future.

4. Journalists protecting their civil and professional rights

3 December
All media, Khujand, Sughd province

On 3 December, in the northern city of Khujand the National Association of Independent Mass Media helped organize the first session of the Club of Sughd Journalists.

The Club of Sughd Journalists is an informal public unit comprising media professionals dealing with analysis of freedom of speech in Tajikistan’s Sughd province. The Club develops recommendations to improve the quality of media reporting.

Nuriddin Karshiboev, chairman of NANSMIT said that the Club is an independent social group of journalists acting on the basis of corporate interests. The Club is open for all journalists from both state and private mass media, as well as for university students.

9 December
All media, Dushanbe

On 9 December 2011, the Union of Journalists of Tajikistan held a round table session on the topic “Is reregistering of the media needed in Tajikistan?” Editors of leading periodicals, representatives of media organizations, the parliament deputies, officials from the Tax Committee, Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Culture attended the session.

Referring to the existing law on “Printing and other mass media”, the Tax Committee has approached the Ministry of Culture asking all Tajik periodicals to reregister as “individual legal entity”.

Participants of the round table asked the authorities to reconsider their initiative to avoid incorrect interpretations. The request is written in a letter to the chairman of the Tax Committee under the government and to the Minister of Culture.

16 December
All media

Problems of legal protection of Tajikistan’s mass media were discussed at a round table organized by the Media Alliance of Tajikistan (MAT) on 16 December.

According to the Secretary General of MAT Khurshedi Atovullo, in 2010, five legal claims against the Farazh weekly were presented to courts. It is getting more and more difficult to hire a lawyer who knows the legal specifics of working with the media.

Atovullo says that attorneys often perform the role of mediators between the judge and the conflicting parties.

Participants of the round table suggested to create a special foundation to support the media and journalists and to unite legal experts working in the media sphere.

II. VIOLATION OF PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS

1. Impediments to professional activities

4 December
Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan, Dushanbe

On 4 December, the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan held its XII Congress. The Tajik journalist Abdulazim Abduvahhob was not admitted to the conference hall of SDPT. The Party leader Rakhmatillo Zoirov told the journalist that the media were not expected at the Congress and journalists could impede the discussion of important issues.

2. Appeal on question of law

2 December
Reporters without Borders, Paris

On 1 December, the international human rights organization Reporters without Borders expressed discontent with the decision of the Tajik Supreme Court regarding the case of Urunboi Usmanov, the BBC correspondent in Tajikistan.

The RSF press release on that is available here: http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=797

7 December
Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, correspondent, Nuri Zindagi

Detailed information is in the following press release: http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=798

3. Censorship

24 December
Orzu Isoev, correspondent, Radio Imruz, Dushanbe

The former correspondent of the state TV Safina channel and, at present, correspondent of Radio Imruz Orzu Isoev told Radio Ozodi (RFE/RL) that he could not cover a whole range of topical issues while working for the government television.

Among the banned topics were legal persecutions of journalists in the country. Isoev indicates tough censorship ruling in the state media.

III. CONFLICTS, VIOLATIONS INCRIMINATED TO THE MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS

1. Protection of honor, dignity and business reputation

12 December
SSSR, private newspaper, Dushanbe

On 11 December 2011, the editor of the SSSR weekly Sayofi Mizrob told the media that the mayor of Kulyab Khamid Abdulloev and the head of Khatlon province administration Gaibullo Afzalov filed a lawsuit against his newspaper.

On 1 September, SSSR published a photo essay titled “Kulyab of XXI century with donkeys of the II century”. The newspaper wanted to show the existing urban problems in the city where people have no access to clean water. The city and province administrations decided that the publication defames their personal honor and dignity.

This report is based on compiled materials from the media and private information presented by correspondents of the NANSMIT Monitoring Network

Coordinator of the Monitoring Service
Abdufattokh Vokhidov

Project Manager
Nuriddin Karshibaev

DUSHANBE — Huge billboards urging people to denounce corruption have been prominently placed in front of two Tajik universities this month, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

The billboards, in the capital, Dushanbe, depict two hands: one extended hand offering cash with another hand rejecting the apparent bribe by pushing the money back.

«We Say NO to Bribery in the Education Sector,» read the billboards, which appeared ahead of the winter exam season at Tajik universities.

The billboards were prepared by Tajikistan’s anticorruption agency along with the Dushanbe offices of the UN Development Fund and Britain’s Department for International Development.

Corruption is rampant in Tajikistan, and the country’s education sector is particularly notorious for its widespread bribery.

Several students at Tajikistan’s National University (TNU) told RFE/RL that some professors demand a bribe in order to pass a test and there is even a concrete price for each exam and test, ranging from 30 to 100 somonis (approximately $6-$20).

In a recent meeting with students at TNU, Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov admitted that bribery exists in Tajik universities. But he blamed the students’ parents for the problem.

«It’s common knowledge which professors at which schools accept bribes,» Rahmonov said. «It wasn’t like this before. It’s the parents’ fault. I personally heard some of them saying they would agree to pay a bribe as long as their children pass their exams.»

TNU student Abubakr Mulloev told RFE/RL that he hopes the anticorruption billboards will prompt students and professors to think twice before giving or receiving bribes.

Mulloev said «many university professors — although not all of them — have let students know how much their exams and tests will cost.»

Tajikistan is ranked 152 in the 2011 Corruption Index of Transparency International, a body that annually ranks countries on their perceived levels of corruption.

http://www.rferl.org/content/anticorruption_billboards_erected_tajikistan/24438555.html