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

Paris, Dushanbe, 7 September 2011

Your Excellency, President Emomali Rakhmon,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

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

www.nansmit.tj

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another journalist has come under pressure by the authorities in Tashkent, in a fashion that has become familiar to independent reporters who dare overstep boundaries set by officials.

Yelena Bondar, a 23-year-old freelance journalist and Uzbek citizen, faces misdemeanor charges of failing to fully declare goods upon her arrival at Tashkent’s international airport.

The airport’s customs department issued the following statement:

«During the search of Elena Bondar’s hand luggage, the following items were found that were not declared by her on the customs’ declaration form and also during verbal questioning: 3 DVDs, a compact disc, 4 memory sticks and 2 videocassettes.»

Bondar was briefly detained at the airport on August 22 upon her return from Bishkek, where she attended a journalism course organized for young Central Asian reporters by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

The journalist told local media that she was held for some four hours, during which border guards, customs officers, and other officials searched her luggage and confiscated the discs and memory sticks.

Bondar said she believes officials at the airport knew of her return from Bishkek and «were prepared» to find a pretext for detaining and questioning her.

A few days later, Bondar was summoned by officials, who questioned the reporter about her trip to Bishkek and the content of the 10-week journalism course.

«They asked whether we were taught how to organize velvet revolutions,» the journalist told ferghana.ru, an independent news site.

Bondar said she was asked to sign a pledge that she would not leave the country and was told that the content of information in the discs and memory cards was being analyzed by «experts.»

Bondar has said the information consists of several articles from regional papers, a draft of a video report on art, and a few photos taken in Bishkek.

The charge of failing to declare goods to customs officials carries a financial penalty, but this is not the main concern of Bondar and free-media advocates in Central Asia.

The way Bondar was detained, as well as the charges, are all too familiar to Uzbek journalists.

Umida Niyazova, an independent reporter, was questioned in a similar fashion at Tashkent airport in 2006 and accused of failing to declare her portable computer. Niyazova, too, was returning from an OSCE-sponsored seminar for Central Asian journalists in Bishkek.

She was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of illegally entering the country, carrying contraband, and fostering unrest with the help of foreign funding. One week later, an appeals court upheld the verdict but suspended the sentence and she was released.

Last year, Umida Ahmedova, an Uzbek photographer and documentary filmmaker, had the content of her work «analyzed.»

Ahmedova was found guilty of slandering and insulting the Uzbek people for her depiction of the lives of ordinary people in Uzbekistan. Ahmedova, who faced up to three years’ imprisonment for the conviction, was granted amnesty.

Engaging in independent journalism comes at a high price in Uzbekistan, where the government has tightened its grip on the media, especially after its bloody response to the 2005 popular uprising in the eastern city of Andijon.

The situation led many leading Uzbek journalists, including Galima Bukharbaeva and Natalya Bushueva, to leave the country. Journalist Jamshid Karimov — a nephew of Uzbek President Islam Karimov — was placed in a psychiatric clinic for criticizing government policies.

The list of journalists persecuted by Uzbek authorities is long, and expanding.

The government has closed down the offices of international media organizations in Tashkent, including the BBC, Voice of America, and RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, among others.

Ferghana.ru, a news agency that employed Elena Bondar as a freelance contributor during her student years, has expressed concern over the authorities’ handling of Bondar.

Farangis Najibullah, RFE/RL

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/

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

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

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

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

No Uzbek Embassy official met with the protesters.

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

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

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

Joint Statement

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

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

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

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

Akbarali Sattarov,
Chairman of UJT

Nargis Zokirova
Director of HRB

Nuriddin Karshiboev
Chairman of NANSMIT

Dushanbe, 1 September 2011

www.nansmit.tj

DUSHANBE — The chief editor of an independent Tajik newspaper says he and his relatives were beaten by unknown attackers while going to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

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

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

Atovullo added that at least four more people waiting for them in Dushanbe’s Zarafshon-2 district joined the first group of assailants. He said the men did not give a reason for the attack.

Qaysiddin Aliev, the officer on duty in Dushanbe’s Sino-2 police station, said his station took a statement from Atovullo about the attack. Aliev added that Atovullo was sent for a medical check-up and the police were waiting for the results before launching an investigation.

Aliev said it should be easy to detain the attackers because Atovullo saw the license-plate number of the assailants’ car.

Nuriddin Qarshiboev, the head of National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan, deplored the attack on Atovullo.

Qarshiboev said if there was evidence that Atovullo was beaten for being a journalist then the association would offer him legal advice.

«Farazh» and two other independent weeklies were effectively closed down for three weeks in October after not being allowed to use any printing facilities, reportedly on orders from government officials displeased by what they called «aggressive» coverage of military operations in the eastern Rasht Valley last year.

The U.S., British, French, and German ambassadors and the head of a European Union delegation cited that printing-access deprivation when expressing concerns to the Tajik Foreign Ministry in the fall about the state of media freedom in the country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Davlat Nazriev told RFE/RL late last year that the government did not issue a ban on the printing of the newspapers. The pressure on «Farazh» was subsequently lifted.

In April, a legal dispute between three Supreme Court judges and three independent newspapers — including «Farazh» — was settled out of court after more than a year of dispute.

The case began in January 2010 when the newspapers «Ozodagon,» «Farazh,» and «Asia Plus» published a statement by lawyer Solehjon Juraev accusing the Supreme Court of corruption.

Atovullo was also attacked and nearly killed by unknown attackers in 1995 when he worked as a journalist.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_editor_attacked_in_dushanbe/24314137.html

ENG: http://en.rsf.org/no-one-shall-be-subjected-to-30-08-2011,40875.html

FRA: http://fr.rsf.org/nul-ne-sera-soumis-a-une-30-08-2011,40874.html?var_mode=calcul

«No one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance»

As the world marks International Day of the Disappeared today, Reporters Without Borders notes that many countries are still violating international law on this matter, including the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which the UN General Assembly adopted in 2006.

Reporters Without Borders calls for the universal ratification of this convention, which has so far been signed by 91 countries and ratified by 29. Combating enforced disappearance is vital in the struggle against dictatorships and arbitrary rule.

Enforced disappearance includes both secret imprisonment and secret house arrest, in which the families of the victims are denied any information about their fate or where they are being held. It is a form of abduction and sometimes ends in murder.

It is a radical method of oppression in which human rights defenders, opposition activists, free speech activists and independent journalists are removed from society because they are often on the front line of the struggle against authoritarian regimes. As well censoring calls for freedom and justice, dictatorships target those who make the calls.

Enforced disappearances, which contravene international law and often the law of the countries where they take place, must be condemned firmly. Without an effective struggle against this evil, without binding measures that require respect for the basic legal rules on arrest and detention, any improvement in fundamental freedoms is impossible. The widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity. The prosecution of those responsible should be a priority.

Article 2 of the convention defines “enforced disappearance” as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the state, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”

Iran and China have turned enforced disappearance into a favoured method of censoring free speech. The uprisings in Libya and Syria have led to extra-judicial arrests of many journalists. Mexico has many cases of unsolved disappearances of journalists. The inhumane prison conditions in Eritrea, a small country forgotten by the international community, must be condemned. And finally, disappearances are also common in Pakistan, the world’s most dangerous country for journalists. Reporters Without Borders highlights several key cases below.

IRAN

Human rights and pro-democracy activist Pirouz Davani, editor of the paper Pirouz, vanished in late August 1998. The paper Kar-e-Karagar said on 28 November that year he had been executed. Akbar Ganji, of Sobh-é-Emrouz, who was investigating the case, confirmed this in late November 2000 and accused the then prosecutor of the special ecclesiastical court, Mohseni Ejehi, (the current prosecutor-general) of being involved in his death. The judiciary has not investigated.

Journalist Kouhyar Goudarzi has been held in secret since 1 August 2011 for unknown reasons and justice officials have not said where he is being held.

CHINA

Human rights campaigner Govruud Huuchinhuu, of the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance (SMDA), has been missing since she was released on 27 January 2011 from Tongliao hospital (通辽), Inner Mongolia (northern China), where she was being treated for cancer. She had been under house arrest since November 2010 for urging online that Mongolian dissidents celebrate the release of journalist and cyberdissident Hada, who heads the SDMA and defends China’s Mongolian minority. Officials say he was freed after more than 15 years at the end of his sentence on 10 December 2010 but he is still in prison. There has been no news of him for several weeks.

PAKISTAN

Journalist Rehmatullah Darpakhel was kidnapped in North Waziristan on 11 August 2011.

SRI LANKA

Prageeth Ekneligoda, journalist and cartoonist with Lankaenews, vanished in Colombo on 24 January 2010. No progress has been made in efforts to find him.

ERITREA

Most of the 30 or so journalists in prison are considered to have disappeared because of the problems of finding them and the regime’s refusal to give any information about where they are and their state of health. The best known is Dawit Isaac, founder of the now-closed weekly Setit and holding dual Eritrean and Swedish nationality, who since his arrest on 23 September 2001 has alternated between prison and hospital spells in the capital, Asmara. He was transferred in 2009 from a provincial prison in Embatkala to the air force hospital in Asmara, where he was treated for several months. Then he vanished and nobody has been allowed to visit him. He may be in Asmara’s Karchelle prison or in the Eiraeiro prison, northeast of the capital.

Other vanished journalists include the editor and co-founder of the fortnightly Meqaleh, Mattewos Habteab, arrested in Asmara on 19 September 2001, and sports writer Temesgen Gebreyesus, of the fortnightly Keste Debena, who was arrested the next day.

MEXICO

Journalist María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, of the daily papers Diario de Zamora and Cambio de Michoacán (in the southwestern state of Michoacán), disappeared in 2009. Marco Antonio López Ortiz, news editor of the Acapulco paper El Sur (in the southwestern state of Guerrero), vanished in June 2011. No official investigation has produced any results.

MIDDLE EAST

Many foreign and Libyan journalists were detained for several days by supporters of the Gaddafi regime with no news of where they were being held or their conditions of detention. Disappearances are also frequent in Syria of journalists, activists and witnesses to the repression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

http://en.rsf.org/no-one-shall-be-subjected-to-30-08-2011,40875.html

AQTOBE, Kazakhstan — A rights activist and RFE/RL reporter in northwestern Kazakhstan has been acquitted of libel, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

Alima Abdirova was sued by the former director of a special-needs boarding school in Aqtobe after she alleged children there were being abused. The allegations were published in a local newspaper in May.

Abdirova told RFE/RL that Judge Maqsat Duisen dropped the libel charges against her on August 31, saying they «have not been proven in court.»

Abdirova was sued in her capacity as a member of the independent Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights, not as a journalist.

Irina Dombrovskaya, the school’s former director, maintained that Abdirova’s portrayal of conditions at the school was distorted and inaccurate.

Dombrovskaya also demanded 5 million tenges (about $34,000) in moral damages and 60,000 tenges (about $400) for court costs.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kazakh_reporter_activist_acquitted_of_libel/24314086.html

In August 2011, the NANSMIT Monitoring Service received 25 reports. Four of them describe the factual situation in the media in the light of socio-legal and political environment; fourteen reports describe direct violations of rights of media professionals; and seven reports describe conflicts 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

2 August
Dodihudo Saimiddinov, chairman, the government Committee on Language and Terminology, Dushanbe

Professor Dodihudo Saimiddinov, chairman of the government Committee on Language and mistreated a correspondent of the Ozodagon weekly Ibodullokhi Tohir. The official pushed the journalist out of his office and refused to answer his questions.

According to Ozodagon, the journalist spent two hours in chairman’s waiting-room. When, eventually, he entered his premises and asked to share comments about the absence of Tajik computer keyboards, the bureaucrat yelled, “I have no spare time to talk with you! Close the door behind you!” The journalist was insistent, and the official made comments about his appearance, “How dare you to come to a public servant without a suit and tie?”

2. Factual situation in the media

13 August
Barzu Abdurazakov, theater director, Dushanbe

A well-known Tajik theater director Barzu Abdurazakov told Radio Ozodi (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) that he does not watch Tajik TV programs.
“I do not watch TVT anymore. Once, I switched on the TV set, and I had a feeling that somebody tries to convince me that I am stupid. All TV programs have the very same message: “you are a full, and let us teach you something”. I would have kept silent unless our television did not broadcast through the satellite. The whole World has access to it, and this is a disgrace for the nation…”

“I watch TV – there’s no freedom; I read newspapers – no freedom either. If I want to stage a new play it is filtered through dozens of public offices. At present, censorship in Tajikistan is worse than it was in the Soviet time, even in 1937”.

3. Journalists protecting their civil and professional rights

5 August
All media, Dushanbe

On 5 August, the Center for Countering Corruption and Promotion of Education (CCPE) and the Tajik National Association of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT) held a round table on the topic “Ignoring applications of citizens is a manifestation of corruption in the government”. The event in Dushanbe was attended by government officials, human rights organizations, independent experts and the mass media.
Participants discussed the issues of legal application to the authorities at different levels as a mechanism for decision making, and other relevant problems.

The round table resulted in recommendations developed by participants for the government of Tajikistan.

23 August
Association of media producers and distributors of TV and radio products, Dushanbe

A new media association is created in Dushanbe – the Association of Media Producers and Distributors of TV and Radio Products.

The main goal of the new organization is protection of producers of broadcasting contents. According to the director Zinatullo Ismoilov, the Association is founded by the following Tajik entities: TV SMT, TV Regar, TV Mavji Ozod, TV 5 in Kanibadam, TV Simo in Penjikent, Independent TV & Radio in Kurgan-Tube, and Oriyono Media.

BY 2015, according to the international conventions and treaties, Tajikistan, along with other 100 countries must switch to digital broadcasting. In this regard, the Association should protect the interests and render assistance to private TV and radio companies in the country.

II. VIOLATION OF PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS

1. Criminal persecution of a journalist

22 August
Urunboi Usmanov, BBC, Khujand

According to Faizinisso Vakhidova, the lawyer of Urunboi Usmanov, correspondent of BBC in Sughd province, the Tajik law enforcement agencies applied tortures to her defendant. Usmonov himself made this statement at the court hearing on 18 August.

“Usmonov had open wounds upon eyebrows and hands, but the judge was not interested from the defendant about that,” — said Vakhidova. The lawyer added that the judge Shohidon Nazarov did not respond to Usmonov’s verbal complaint about the tortures.

22 August
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

The US-based organization Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls the Tajik authorities to reject a trumped-up charge against Urunboi Usmanov, the BBC correspondent in Sughd province.
On 22 August, CPJ released a statement saying that the reporter is charged with participation in the illegal extremist group Hisb-ut-Tahrir. According to Usmonov’s lawyer Faizinisso Vakhidova, the journalist might receive a lengthy prison term on these charges.

Robert Mahoney, director of CPJ said that the charges against Usmonov are absurd since a journalist in line of duty has the right to communicate with any groups including those opposing the government.

26 August
Urunboi Usmonov, BBC, Khujand

Malohat Abduazimova, the spouse of the BBC correspondent Urunboi Usmonov told the court on 26 August that her husband was beaten by law enforcement officers on 13 August, on the day he was arrested.
On that day he did not return home. Relatives were looking for home everywhere, but his telephone was silent. On the next day, he came home accompanied by four national security officers.

The judge asked Abduazimova whether she applied to the law enforcement agencies to raise concern about the beating of her husband. The lady answered negatively explaining that Usmonov was kept in the detention facility, i.e. was under control of the law enforcement unit.

26 August
Amnesty International, London

On 24 August, the international human rights organization Amnesty International issued a press release expressing concern over the arrest of Urunboi Usmonov, correspondent of BBC in Sughd province.

The press release says, “Amnesty International is concerned that BBC journalist Urunboy Usmonov faces up to five years’ imprisonment on charges believed to relate to his professional activities. To the organization’s knowledge, no investigation has yet been carried out into allegations that he was tortured and ill-treated in pre-trial detention. The judge has reportedly yet to inquire into how he and his four co-defendants have been treated in pre-trial detention”.

The full text of the press release is available here: http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=736

2. Violation of publicity of court proceeding

16 August
Shohidon Nazarov, deputy chairman of the Sughd province court, Khujand

Deputy chairman of the Sughd province court Shohidon Nazarov told the media that he can admit only two journalists to the court hearings on the case of Urunboi Usmanov, the BBC correspondent. He added that the journalists must preliminary receive a special permission from the province prosecutor.

Август, 18
Все СМИ

On 18 August, chairman of the Tajik National Association of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT) Nuriddin Karshiboev met with the chairman of the court in Sughd province Naim Mansurov to express concern over the issue of violation of publicity in court proceeding.

Mansurov explained that, probably, the statement of his subordinate was misunderstood. “We take all necessary measures to ensure access of the media to the court hearings”, — said the official.

3. Violation of criminal-procedural standards

22 August
Urunboi Usmonov, BBC, Khujand

Faizinisso Vakhidova, the lawyer of the BBC correspondent Urunboi Usmonov is going to solicit about an interrogation of Ulugbek Mustafokulov, the judge of the city court in Khujand who had to verify the defendant’s waiving of the lawyer’s services.

“The judge had to crosscheck Usmonov’s statement. The defendant has no skills in jurisprudence. He is an ethnic Uzbek, and does not properly understand the Tajik language. He had to be provided with a lawyer even without his consent”, — she said.

“Secondly, the judge did not check the date of Usmonov’s registered arrest against the factual detention, and the difference is one day”, — added Vakhidova.

Usmonov is accused of “a failure to report a crime” and “participation in activities of a political party, public or religious organization banned on the territory of Tajikistan”.

4. Threat (Article 120 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code)

22 August
Asia Plus weekly, Dushanbe

Shukhyrat Kudratov and Abdurakhmon Sharipov, lawyers of the Asia Plus weekly told Radio Ozodi that an officer from the State Unit on Countering Organized Crime Valikhon Mulloev insulted and threatened them. The lawyers came to hearings at the Firdausi district court in Dushanbe; Mulloev approached them saying, “You are the enemies of the law enforcement structures. I wish I would shoot you in the forehead, and I will find the way to destroy you”.
The lawyers say that Mulloev repeated his threats several times, and there werse some witnesses who can confirm this. They applied to the office of Prosecutor General soliciting support and protection from Mulloev who has access to firearms.

Mulloev represents the interests of Anvar Tagoimurodov, deputy Minister of Interior. A few months ago, Asia Plus published an article revealing facts of tortures by certain law enforcement officers, after which the deputy minister filed a suit against Asia Plus accusing the newspaper of libel and defamation.
On 22 August, the deputy prosecutor general Abdukodir Muhammadiev had a meeting with the Asia Plus lawyer Shukhrat Kudratov. The official said that the complaint is accepted and passed to a special prosecutor general’s unit in charge of line-of-duty investigations.

26 August
US Embassy in Dushanbe

The embassy of the United States in Dushanbe is concerned about the threats by an Interior Ministry official against the lawyers of Asia Plus weekly.
“If these threats are real, such kind of actions must be investigated and presented in court to ensure the integrity of the national law enforcement system”, — says the statement issued on 26 August.

5. Ungrounded limitation of access to information

3 August
Kh. Tagoimurodov, head of the government antimonopoly service, Dushanbe

The Farazh weekly continued a discussion around the activities of the government antimonopoly service and its head, Mr. Tagoimurodov. This government structure has the duty of ensuring healthy competition in Tajikistan’s markets as well as faier and equal attitude to all market players regardless of their forms of property.

The agency has been repeatedly criticized for violations of these provisions. Farazh has published a number of articles criticizing the antimonopoly agency; however, none of its officials has responded to the publications.

III. CONFLICTS, VIOLATIONS INCRIMINATED TO THE MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS

1. Accusation of participation in an illegal religious extremist organization

August 16
Urunboi Usmonov, correspondent, BBC, Khujand

On 16 August 2011, the court in the Tajik northern city of Khujand started hearings on the case of Urunboi Usmanov, correspondent of the Uzbek service of BBC in Sughd province. The journalist is accused of participation in an illegal religious extremist organization.

Detailed information on the case of Usmonov is available here:
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=730
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=735
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=736
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=740

2. Protection of honor, dignity and business reputation

4 August
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dushanbe

On 4 August, the correspondent of the analytical online outlet EurasiaNet.org was invited to the Tajik Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a discussion regarding his article Tajikistan:Dushanbe Keeping Russia at Arm’s Length http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63978.

Konstantin Parshin told the NANSMIT monitoring service that the head of the ministry’s information department Davlatali Nazriev complained about misinformation in the article, namely, there was a segment telling about Tajikistan’s demand of payment for Russia’s military presence in the country.

Konstantin Parshin explained that the segment was added by the editor in charge of the final version of the article. The editor made only one mistake – he did not provided a link to the initial source of information.

In reality, the allegations and statements about Tajikistan’s demand of payment from Russia had been published by a number of Russian media including the state-owned RIA Novosti.

It should be also noted that many Tajik correspondents working for foreign media outlets have had problems after “reprints” in online portals. The most “famous” in this regard is Centrasia.ru, which very often changes headlines and contents of original articles, although leaving bylines unchanged.

23 August
Abdulgafur Orzu, ambassador of Afghanistan in Dushanbe

The ambassador of Afghanistan in Dushanbe Abdulgafur Orzu решительно refuted a publication in the Avesta news agency saying that Afghanistan rejected the proposal on export of Tajikistan’s electricity.

The diplomat said that such publications raise concern on the eve of the 20-th anniversary of Tajikistan and the forthcoming visit of Khamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan. (Millat weekly, #34, 24.08.2011).

3. Violation of ethical norms in journalism

18 August
The Media Council of Tajikistan, Dushanbe

The Media Council of Tajikistan acknowledged that publications on the web site Pressa.tj and in the newspapers Narodnaya Gazeta regarding the arrest of Urunboi Usmonov are not in compliance with the ethical code of journalists.
Members of the Council stated that Narodnaya Gazeta in its publication used the words like “pseudo-journalist” and “extremist”, thus violating Article 7 of the Ethical Code. Only the court can define whether the person in question is an extremist or he is not. Article 8 of the Code also contains provisions on presumption of innocence. This Article, inter alia, says that journalists must restrain from their own judgment in their writing.
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