Tag Archives: media freedom

HRW may return to Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Taking its era of openness to new heights, the Uzbek government said it may allow Human Rights Watch to re-open its office in Tashkent, six years after it was effectively expelled.

The BBC has also posted an advert for an Uzbek language journalist to be based in Tashkent, suggesting that it too was also preparing the ground for a return to Uzbekistan.

In comments reported by official media, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said: “Our cooperation with Human Rights Watch underwent something of a pause, some time in 2010. But this does not mean that we have definitively suspended relations or that we do not want to cooperate.”

The human rights lobby was told to leave Uzbekistan in 2011. The BBC and other media had been thrown out of the country six years earlier after reporting on the deaths of hundreds of people in the town of Adijan after government soldiers opened fire.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has looked to open up the country since taking over as president in September 2016, promising to give ordinary Uzbeks more freedom.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kyrgyz court fines website $400k for insulting Atamayev

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BISHKEK, JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in the Kyrgyz capital ordered ProMedia which runs Zanoza, one of the most lively and well-respected news websites in the country, to pay President Almazbek Atamayev damages of $400,000 for offending his dignity in a case that has raised questions over Kyrgyzstan’s commitment to free speech.

Immediately after the verdict, one of the co-founders of Zanoza, Dina Maslova, said that the media outlet simply couldn’t pay the fine and that, unless an appeal court overturned the verdict, it would have to close down.

“We criticise the president if it is needed because this is our work,” she said. “This is an irritation for the political authorities just before a presidential election. But we are going to appeal the decision. This case mostly harms the reputation of the judicial system and image of the country.”

The other co-founder of ProMedia and Zanoza is Naryn Idinov. He is under a travel ban linked to the defamation charges.

The charges trace back to a series of articles published by Zanoza and the local language service of the US- funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 2015 and 2017 which quoted opposition activists describing Pres. Atambayev as corrupt and describing his lavish lifestyle.

The charges against Radio Free Europe were dropped after the head of the service, Tom Kent, flew in for talks with Mr Atambayev. In exchange for dropping the charges, Mr Kent replaced the head of the local language service.

This option wasn’t available to Zanoza. Still, Ms Maslova, the co- founder, was defiant and said that if Zanoza was forced to close, they would simply open up another website under another brand.

For Kyrgyzstan, the damage to its image as the most liberal of the five Central Asian states was instant. Free speech campaigners said that they had been warning of a gradual erosion of rights for the past couple of years.

And ordinary people on the streets of Bishkek were also concerned about the implications.

“Other media agencies may be intimidated by such large fines and will strengthen their (self) censorship. The reader will be limited in his or her choice and will not trust the media, especially when they talk about the President,” said Begaiym Adzhikeeva, a Bishkek resident.

Some analysts have linked the defamation case against Zanoza to a presidential election scheduled for October.

Mr Atambayev is stepping down after a single term in office, as stipulated by the constitution, but his preferred successor is facing an increasingly acrimonious contest.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Georgian prosecutors ask for access to abducted reporter

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JUNE 26 2017 (The Bulletin) — Georgian prosecutors have opened a case described as “unlawful imprisonment” over the abduction of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli from Tbilisi in May, media reported. It reported that investigators have asked Azerbaijan for access to Mr Mukhtarli who has resurfaced in Azerbaijani custody. Azerbaijani prosecutors have charged Mr Mukhtarli with crossing the border into Georgia illegally.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Thin-skinned Kazakh officials dislike EXPO criticism

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JUNE 20 2017 (The Bulletin) — Often accused of being thin-skinned, Kazakhstan reacted with fury at an article published by the Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine which said the EXPO
2017 site was boring and had no visitors. Kazakh officials claimed that Foreign Policy journalist James Palmer had never even visited the site before he wrote the story. They then also blocked the Foreign Policy website.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Comment: Ignore the corporate feel, EXPO-2017 is worth a visit

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — After a build-up lasting five years, Kazakhstan has finally opened EXPO- 2017. If you’re in Astana between now and mid-September when it closes, you should go. It feels excessively corporate and you’ll probably come out of the EXPO-2017 site none-the-wiser on what exactly its Orwellian-tinged ‘Future Energy’ means, but don’t dwell on this — it’s not the real point of the exposition.

EXPO-2017 is a source of national pride and a must-do event for most ordinary Kazakhs this summer, at least for the ones who live in and around Astana. And this pride and sense of fun is evident throughout EXPO-2017. The dozens and dozens of uniformed guides are courteous, speak excellent English and are genuinely helpful. The student volunteers beam with joy and are relishing the internationalism of the whole event.

As for the visitors, when I was there it must have been 95% Kazakh. These were groups of families and friends touring the pavilion, drinking in each country’s take on EXPO- 2017. This ranges from Britain’s glowing yurt to Iran’s focus on promoting its carpets.

The visiting Kazakhs, armed with selfie sticks and aging smartphones, weren’t the super rich who travel effortlessly around the world, these were Kazakhs who may never have left Central Asia, or been on a solitary trip to Europe. EXPO-2017 feels as if it has returned the international exposition series to its original mid-19th century Victorian era roots of bringing the world to a particular city.

The human rights lobby draws visitors’ attention to Kazakhstan’s poor record for tolerating dissent and media freedom, and there have been widely documented corruption issues around EXPO-2017, but push this aside for now and enjoy the spectacle.

And make sure you don’t miss out on the Caribbean pavilion, the least scripted section. The women from Belize, Haiti and Dominica will tell you how they are coping with four months in Kazakhstan, a country they hadn’t heard of until earlier this year.

By James Kilner, Editor, Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Azerbaijan jails opposition activist

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced opposition activist Fuad Ahmadli to 16 years in prison for stealing people’s personal data when he worked at mobile phone operator Azerfon.

Ahmadli’s supporters have said that the allegations are fraudulent and part of a government crackdown against dissenters. Ahmadli was a activist for the main opposition group, the Popular Front Party.

European politicians have accused the Azerbaijan government of cracking down on opposition members and journalists. The Azerbaijani government has said that the EU is being naive and that it is rooting out people who are in favour of regime change.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kyrgyzstan should drop charges against journalist, says CPJ

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JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee should drop charges against Ferghana News journalist Ulughbek Babakulov that an article he wrote on a knife fight in May was designed to ignite racial hatred. Mr Babakulov has fled the country and has said that his reporting was based on Facebook posts of the fight in the south of the country between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks and that the security services were trying to cover up any suggestion of ethnic tension.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Azerbaijan jails opposition activist

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced opposition activist Fuad Ahmadli to 16 years in prison for stealing people’s personal data when he worked at mobile phone operator Azerfon.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Comment: Don’t ignore Kazakh rights abuse

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan sees EXPO-2017 in Astana as a “showcase to the international community”.

The country has come a long way economically since 1991 but with President Nursultan Nazarbayev in power for 25 years, it has not had an election that could be considered free and fair by independent monitors. The government restricts fundamental freedoms and has become increasingly intolerant of any sort of display of discontent.

In recent years, Kazakh authorities have increased their heavy-handed response to peaceful protest, imprisoned activists and journalists on politically motivated charges, and shut down critical media outlets.

Foreign investors – many of whom recognise the importance of upholding international labour standards – should note that while the government claims it promotes social partnership, it has decimated Kazakhstan’s independent trade union movement and drawn repeated criticism from the International Labour Organisation.

Kazakhstan aspires to be one of the top 30 most developed countries by 2050 and to join the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD). No one can fault Astana for seeking out opportunities like EXPO 2017, but the government’s rights-violating policies are an impediment to such aspirations.

By Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

UN chief’s visit disappoints human rights activists

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ALMATY, JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — UN Security general Antonio Guterres completed a tour of all five Central Asian states, his first since taking the job six months ago, although human rights activists complained that he had taken too soft a line on a regional crackdown of journalists and dissenters.

Mr Guterres’ main message was that the governments of the region need to remain engaged with international organisations to reach their full potential.

“Kazakhstan has been a symbol of dialogue, a symbol of peace, a symbol of the promotion of contacts between cultures, religions and civilizations; and with its presence in the (UN) Security Council, an extremely important dimension in mediation, in relation to conflict,” he said in Astana.

In Ashgabat, a few days later, after attending a counter-terrorism conference Mr Guterres, a former Portuguese PM and UN high commissioner for refugees, took a tougher line on rights.

“Upholding the rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in this region are fundamental to countering the threat that violent extremism poses,” he said.

Even so, with media freedoms and human rights on the retreat in the region, after a series of arrests of journalists and a crackdown on workers’ unions, activists accused Mr Guterres of going soft on the issue in favour of developing nodes of engagement.

Hugh Williamson, director of the Central Asia division at New York- based Human Rights Watch, said Mr Guterres had failed to meet members of local civil rights movements on his tour of the region and that describing Kazakhstan as a “pillar of stability” and Kyrgyzstan as a “pioneer of democracy” was sending out the wrong message.

“Central Asian leaders also pay close attention to what high-level visitors like Guterres focus on, also in public,” he said in a statement.

“Not only did Guterres fail to set clear expectations on human rights improvements across Central Asia, his praise for his largely authoritarian audience risks sending the message that trampling over human rights is fine.”

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)