JAN. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York Times newspaper inadvertently highlighted the still relatively obscure nature of Central Asia by printing an article in which it referred to Kyrbekistan instead of Kyrgyzstan. Independent only since 1991, statehood and identity are important markers for Central Asian countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
>>Demonstration against closure of political magazine>>
JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a rare show of public dissent in Kazakhstan, a small crowd gathered in Almaty to protest against the closure of weekly opposition newspaper Adam bol”.
Led by the newspaper editor, Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, a group of 25 journalists and activists walked across the Arbat, a pedestrian and commercial zone in the centre of the former capital shouting slogans and waving placards that challenged Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev to rescind the order to close the magazine.
Black-clad security officers stood to the side closely monitoring the protest.
“The presence of ‘men in black’ is always felt at these events,” Dina Baidildayeva a high-profile blogger who filmed the protest told the Bulletin.
The authorities in Kazakhstan have clamped down on political pluralism and media freedom over the past few years, especially in the wake of the Zhanaozen riots in west Kazakhstan in 2011 that killed at least 15 people. Allowing the Adam bol demonstration, therefore, was fairly remarkable.
The newspaper was shut down last November, after it published an article on Ukraine that highlighted Kazakhs fighting in the Ukrainian civil war. The article also questioned Russia’s role in the conflict.
Nate Schenkkan, Central Asia programme officer at the US media watchdog NGO Freedom House, said: “The article on Ukraine could have been just a pretext to do away with an uncomfortable publication for the leadership.”
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
>>US criticises yet another crackdown on civil liberties>>
DEC. 28 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan continued its crackdown on the media in the run up to New Year when it raided the office of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Officials pulled RFE/RL off the air and detained a handful of its journalists. They said that the raid was
part of a criminal investigation although they refused to elaborate.
Earlier in December Azerbaijani officials arrested an employee of the local language RFE/RL service for allegedly working for a foreign security service. Also, one of the radio station’s star journalists, Khadija Ismayilova, is currently being held in pre-trial detention. She is accused of coaxing a man into suicide.
For the past couple of years, the authorities in Azerbaijan have been mounting an increasingly aggressive
campaign against the remnants of its free-speaking media and other more liberal minded sections of its civil society. Newspaper editors have been imprisoned, anti-government activists locked up and NGOs backed by Western powers threatened.
And this belligerent attitude towards Western values has now severely strained relations with the US and Europe.
The US issued a strongly worded statement criticising the raid on RFE/RL.
In 2014 the US also withdrew its long-running Peace Corps programme. Although this was described as routine, observers said it was likely linked to worsening relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 16 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kloop news website in Kyrgyzstan said the authorities blocked access to it after it posted a video apparently showing young Kazakh children fighting for the radical IS group in Syria. The owners of the website accused the government of over-reacting and pandering to Kazakhstan which has decreed the video illegal.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Baku arrested Khadija Ismayilova, one of Azerbaijan’s most prominent investigative journalists, and sent her to two months pre-trial detention.
Ms Ismayilova is accused of goading another journalist into committing suicide. She and her supporters have denied the charges.
Ms Ismayilova has a high profile in Azerbaijan for several reasons. She hosts a radio show for the local language station of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, she is a vocal critic of the government and has published various articles alleging corruption against the authorities and she was also at the centre of what she described as a sex sting nearly three years ago.
In the sex sting, videos of her having sex where posted online. They had been taken from inside her house. She again accused the authorities of trying to frame her.
Europe and the United States have voiced their concerns, increasingly loudly, about a freedom of speech clampdown in Azerbaijan. The charges against Ms Ismayilova are another indication of this, they said.
And on the streets of Baku, the atmosphere was tense. People were, generally, afraid to discuss the case.
If they did discuss it, they were clear that they thought Ms Ismayilova’s criticism of the authorities had been the trigger for her detention.
Rauf, 24, the owner of a small business, told a Conway Bulletin correspondent: “Certainly it’s because of her steady critical position against government officials.”
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Forum 18, a news agency based in Oslo focused on promoting religious freedom, reported that Uzbekistan has been using state media to publish articles against people who practise beliefs that it doesn’t agree with. Human rights organisations regularly criticise Uzbekistan for its poor human rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uznews.net, a Russian-language dissident website reporting on Uzbekistan, has temporarily closed after being hacked. The editor of the website, Galima Bukharbayeva, told the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website that she may have to close the website permanently.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV.10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Europe’s main democracy watchdog, the OSCE, accused Azerbaijan of crushing independent media. Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE media representative, said free media had been “purposefully persecuted under various, often unfounded and disturbing charges.”
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Several hundred people protested against a crackdown by the authorities in Azerbaijan against the media, a rare protest in this increasingly heavily policed state.
A Bulletin correspondent said that the demonstration in Baku was good natured and had a festival-like atmosphere with flag waving, folk music and dancing.
Police tried to block reporters from speaking to demonstrators and from filming the march but they eventually relented.
Shakar Isgandarli was one of the demonstrators.
“I am a teacher of two political prisoners, Anar Mammadli and Bashir Suleymanli,” he said. “I taught them to fight against injustice. And they did. Now the Aliyev regime has jailed them for this”.
Europe and the United States have made increasingly harsh statements about the crackdown by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the media but, seemingly, without much impact. Virtually every week, reports from Azerbaijan say that another anti-government activist has been imprisoned.
Mammadli and Suleymanli are two human rights lawyers who were imprisoned earlier this year for tax evasion and illegal business activities. They have said that these charges have been fabricated.
Protesters called for the resignation of Mr Aliyev and vowed to continue protests. The risk for Mr Aliyev is that although the police and prosecutors have been effective at imprisoning government critics, the arrests are stirring more anti-government feelings.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan sentenced Khalid Garayev, a talk show host, to 25 days in detention for alleged hooliganism, media reported. Garayev said the charges were politically motivated. EU and US media lobbyists have accused Azerbaijan of cracking down on media that the authorities dislike.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
