Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Tajikistan strips 6 RFE/RL reporters of accreditation

NOV. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that the Tajik authorities had stripped six of its reporters of their accreditation after the news agency published a story criticising the promotion of President Emomali Rakhmon’s daughter to a senior foreign ministry position.

Mr Rakhmon has a reputation for promoting his friends and family to high positions in the Tajik government and some analysts have said that he is setting up his son, Rustam Emomali, to take over the presidency from him. Mr Rakhmon has changed the constitution to scrap minimum age limits for presidential candidates.

Earlier this year Rukhshona Rahmonova, his daughter, was made an MP and now she has been appointed the deputy head of a department within the foreign ministry.

RFE/RL said that the stripping of its journalists’ accreditation was an attack on the whole agency.

“We are outraged by this action by the Tajik government, which is a blatant attack on our ability to do our jobs as journalists,” it said in a statement on its website.

The media scene for journalists in Tajikistan has been worsening over the past few years. The government has jailed both dissenting journalists and opposition activists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Kazakhstan imposes restrictions on labour unions

NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch accused Kazakhstan of deliberately creating mountains of red tape to thwart and frustrate labour unions. In a report entitled: “Kazakhstan: Workers’ Rights Violated, Restricted”, HRW said that the Kazakh elite grew nervous of labour unions after a strike in 2011 ended with police shooting dead several protesters. HRW said that the government had imposed a registration system on labour unions as a way of monitoring their activities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Uzbek authorities free political prisoner

NOV. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek authorities freed from prison 72-year-old Samandar Kukanov, described by human rights groups as one of the country’s longest surviving political prisoners. Human rights activist also said that the authorities in Uzbekistan had released Tohar Haydarov, a convert to Christianity, who was jailed in 2000 on drug related charges. Mr Kukanov, who opposed former president Islam Karimov, was imprisoned for 20 years in 1994 on embezzlement charges. This sentence was extended by two years in 2004. The release of Mr Kukanov may have been timed to soften acting president Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s image before an election on Dec. 4.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Police arrests another prominent Kazakh journalist

ALMATY, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Astana arrested prominent Kazakh journalist Bigeldy Gabdullin for extortion, a charge that his supporters say is fabricated.

Mr Gabdullin is one of Kazakhstan’s most high-profile and influential journalists. He is executive director of the internet-based media company radiotochka.kz and the editor-in-chief of Central Asia Monitor. Both are renowned for being critical of the government and it policies.

The Pen Club, a London-based organisation that promotes writers’ rights, had previously appointed Mr Gabdullin as its representative in Kazakhstan.

“The organization fears he may have been targeted for his reporting critical of government officials,” it wrote in a press statement. “It is calling for him to be released unless clear evidence of a criminal offence is made available and he is charged and tried promptly and fairly in accordance with international fair trial standards.”

Earlier this year, a court in Astana also sentenced Seitkazy Matayev, a former press secretary to Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and head of the National Union of Journalists in Kazakhstan, to six years in prison for financial crimes.

Journalists in Kazakhstan said that conditions to operate freely have rarely been as bad. Earlier this year, the government created a new information ministry. One of its first acts was to introduce rules for the media which journalists said are designed to stifle free speech.

At a meeting set up to reassure journalists, Dauren Abayev, the minister for information and communication, said the rules were not designed to crush free speech but instead to improve quality.

“The whole system will be improved. There was done a lot of work before we brought up this bill for discussion,” he was quoted as saying by media.

“It is not a crackdown but instead has been done for the end-user, for the citizens of the country.”

Journalists were less impressed.

A journalist from the vlast.kz website said: “The adoption of new amendments might significantly complicate the work of journalists, and with the recent arrests and verdicts it is hard to imagine how this can end well for journalism in Kazakhstan.”

Another anonymous journalist said that the rules and requirements had gotten so complicated that it was difficult to decipher how to avoid being sanctioned and that the new requirements had undermined independent journalism in Kazakhstan.

“There is almost no independent media left. And indifference of the majority of journalists to this legislation is very demonstrative,” she said.

“They know that nothing depends on them. If they open their mouths, they will be fired. Only those who still write or try to write freely are resisting it.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Uzbekistan detains German reporter

NOV. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Almaty-based Edda Schlager, a German freelance journalist, was deported from Uzbekistan for working without accreditation. Uzbekistan severely limits accreditation for foreign journalists and Ms Schlager admitted that she had been working as a journalist on a tourist visa. International interest in Uzbekistan has increased since the death in September of Islam Karimov, who ruled the country since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

HRW condemns assault in Turkmenistan

NOV. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned an assault on Turkmen journalist Soltan Achilova, who had also been briefly detained and questioned by the police. In a statement, HRW said that the October attack on Ms Achilova, who works for US- funded RFE/RL, had been organised to silence criticism.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Female judges to deal with rape in Kazakhstan

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General Zhakip Asanov said female attorneys should be in charge of all criminal trials involving sexual violence, such as rape and paedophilia. In a statement, Mr Asanov said women are better at understanding such cases. Rights groups have accused the Kazakh justice system of being soft on sexual violence.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Freedom House criticises Azerbaijan

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US-based Freedom House accused the Azerbaijani government of harassing two lawyers who have represented a number of clients that it said were later imprisoned for political reasons. Robert Herman, a Freedom House vice president said that Azerbaijan “should end its campaign of innuendo and threats against Elchin Sadiqov and Fariz Namazli, two of the few lawyers in the country who dare to represent political prisoners and bring attention to government wrongdoing.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

European Parliament set to approve Uzbek cotton deal

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An influential European Parliament committee backed a textile trade deal with Uzbekistan that had been moth- balled in 2011 on concerns over the use of child labour.

The vote is a triumph for Uzbekistan and acting-president Shavkat Mirziyoyev as it bestows credibility on the Uzbek cotton sector after years of negative headlines and boycotts by international clothing companies.

The Committee on International Trade will now recommend at a full European Parliament vote in December that a trade deal is made with Uzbekistan.

Reuters quoted Maria Arena, one of the MPs on the committee, as saying that Uzbekistan had improved its labour rights over the past few years.

“The progress made by the Uzbek authorities allows us to move forward and include textiles in our partnership agreement. But we will remain extremely vigilant,” she was quoted as saying.

Last year the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) monitored the Uzbek cotton harvest. It said in a report that there had been major improvements in the way labour was organised and although it was still commonplace for government workers to leave their jobs to pick cotton during the harvest, the use of child labour was far reduced.

Human rights groups, though, were adamant that the European Parliament needed to set an example and avoid a deal with Uzbekistan. In an open letter to the committee sent three days before its meeting, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said that it was because of the European Parliament’s rejection of a trade deal in 2011 that Uzbekistan agreed to open up to UN monitors. It also said that the scenario in Uzbekistan wasn’t as positive as the committee made out.

“We were pleased to note that as a result of international pressure since 2013 children have not been forced to pick cotton on a nationwide scale, and child labour has effectively declined. Yet, local officials reportedly still resort to forced child labour out of a need to fulfil their quotas,” HRW said in its letter.

“Since 2014 we have received steady reports of extortion linked to the cotton harvest.”

Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s most important commodities. For Mr Mirziyoyev, the timing of the recommendation is also important. He faces a presidential election next month.

He is certain to win this election and become the second post-Soviet president of Uzbekistan after Islam Karimov who died in September, but he still needs to win over popular support. Backing from the European Parliament that child labour is reducing in Uzbekistan and a trade deal can now be made will strengthen his position.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Tajikistan bans newspaper

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik Indem think tank suspended the print edition of its Nigoh newspaper under pressure from the authorities. The independent media scene has shrunk in Tajikistan in recent years. Nigoh was known for its support of the now banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)