UZBEKISTAN
APRIL 11, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005
Sobirdjon Yakubov, Hurriyat
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED
Yakubov, a reporter for the state-run weekly newspaper Hurriyat (Liberty), was criminally charged with "undermining the constitutional order" and faced up to 20 years in prison, according to local and international press reports.
Yakubov, 22, a Muslim, was detained in the capital, Tashkent, on suspicions of religious extremism. He was charged three days later, Alisher Sharafutdinov, deputy minister of the interior, announced at a press conference in the capital. The formal charge was based on Yakubov's alleged religious activities. The government did not describe those purported actions in detail, but local reports cited Yakubov's alleged participation in an illegal organization.
Yakubov's colleagues said the charges against him are politicized and he is being punished for writing about Islam and advocating democratic reforms, according to press reports. He recently visited the holy city of Mecca and published a series of articles about his pilgrimage, titled "A Journey to Dreamland," local reports said.
Yakubov's colleagues speculate that authorities might also have targeted him for a March article about slain Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze. In the article, Yakubov said Gongazde's death "became a driving force [for Ukrainians] to realize the necessity of democratic reforms and freedom." According to some of Yakubov's colleagues, Uzbek authorities might have interpreted that as a call for regime changes in Uzbekistan, local reports said.
The Tashkent-based news Web site uznews.net reported that Yakubov called the Hurriyat newsroom on April 11 to inform his colleagues of his detention, but for four days police denied holding him.
Yakubov is the second journalist writing for Hurriyat who has been arrested on charges of "anti-constitutional activity" in the past two years. Gayrat Mehliboyev, a 23-year-old freelancer, was arrested in February 2003, convicted, and sentenced to seven years in prison for an April 2001 article published in Hurriyat that questioned the compatibility of Islam and democracy.
APRIL 23, 2005
Posted: May 3, 2005
Ulugbek Haydarov, freelance
ATTACKED
Haydarov was hospitalized after a severe beating at the doorstep of his home by an assailant who shouted, "I will teach you how to write," according to local and international press reports.
Haydarov suffered a broken collarbone and multiple bruises in the assault reported at 10 p.m. in the city of Jizzakh, the regional capital of Jizzakh Province, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Tashkent, press reports said. Police are investigating, the Jizzakh Interior Ministry said.
Haydarov, 42, had written recent articles about the regional government's farm policies. His stories criticized Jizzakh authorities for allegedly depriving farmers of the best land and appropriating harvested crops, among other things. Tensions between farmers and Gov. Ubaidullah Yamankulov's administration escalated this year and resulted in anti-government protests, press reports said.
The attack comes at a time of growing unease among independent Uzbek journalists, who have expressed broad concerns about alleged anti-press activities by the government. The government has said the concerns are groundless.
Russian-language Web sites outside of Uzbekistan began reporting in March that Uzbek authorities planned a crackdown against independent journalists, opposition activists, and human rights leaders. According to those reports, the Interior Ministry compiled a "black list" of 65 journalists and activists.
The reports prompted a group of Uzbek journalists to write to Interior Minister Zakir Almatov, according to local reports and the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Deputy Interior Minister Alisher Sarafutdinov, who met with journalists on April 15, denied that the ministry had ever compiled a list and said it had no plans to persecute journalists, IWPR reported.
APRIL 27, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
Marina Kozlova, United Press International
LEGAL ACTION
The Foreign Ministry denied press accreditation to Marina Kozlova, Tashkent correspondent for United Press International (UPI).
Kozlova worked as a journalist in Uzbekistan for 10 years and was officially accredited by the Foreign Ministry from 1998 to 2003, first as a correspondent for the Russian weekly Obshchaya Gazeta and since 1999 as a correspondent for UPI. Kozlova faced repeated harassment in retaliation for her reporting on the mistreatment of journalists, human rights abuses by police, and torture in Uzbek prisons.
The Foreign Ministry, which is responsible for accrediting correspondents for international news agencies, first denied accreditation to Kozlova in November 2003. The decision obstructed her ability to report on political developments in Uzbekistan by barring her from attending presidential, parliamentary, and foreign ministry meetings and press conferences.
UPI sought accreditation on her behalf again in February 2005, but Foreign Ministry press secretary Ilkhom Zakirov told Kozlova on April 27 that the ministry would not accredit her because she does not have a journalism degree.
The Foreign Ministry's Web site does not list a journalism degree as a requirement for accreditation. It cites only one criterion for denial or suspension of accreditation: breaking the law. When CPJ contacted Zakirov by telephone on May 4, he would not provide any information about the accreditation process nor would he explain the decision against Kozlova. The Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the United States did not return numerous phone messages seeking information.
MAY 13, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
CNN, BBC, and NTV
CENSORED
Ferghana.ru, Lenta.ru, and Gazeta.ru
CENSORED
Didor Radio
CENSORED
Uzbek authorities shuttered several foreign and domestic media outlets on May 13 during massive anti-government protests in the northeastern city of Andijan, leaving citizens without access to independent news about the unrest, according to local and international press reports.
Authorities blocked access to the foreign television channels CNN, BBC, and Moscow-based NTV at noon after 4,000 protesters stormed a prison in Andijan, freed up to 2,000 inmates, and seized the city administration building earlier in the day, according to press reports.
Major news Web sites such as Ferghana.ru, Lenta.ru, and Gazeta.ru were inaccessible for several hours in the country, according to local press reports. In Andijan, authorities took the popular radio station Didor off the air. Journalists said the city was unreachable by mobile telephone and had only limited landline connections.
Protests grew throughout the day with some 50,000 residents eventually taking to the streets to call for the resignation of President Islam Karimov's administration. Soldiers opened fire against demonstrators, according to international press reports. Karimov flew to Andijan late today as neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan closed their borders with Uzbekistan.
Public resentment toward the government had been building over the prosecution of 23 popular local businessman who were accused of Islamic extremism, press reports said. The businessmen, who were among the freed inmates, had been accused of membership in the Akromiya religious group. The government accuses Akromists of seeking the overthrow of Uzbekistan's secular government.
A protester who spoke by phone with the Tashkent bureau of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said demonstrators acted in a "desperate attempt" to release the businessmen from what they believe is a politically motivated prosecution. The trial against the businessmen finished this week with the prosecution calling for lengthy prison sentences.
Andijan is the main city in the impoverished Ferghana Valley, a stronghold of Islamic activism and resistance to Karimov's dictatorial rule. The businessmen provide employment to thousands of people in Andijan, The Associated Press reported.
MAY 13, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
Shamil Baygin, Reuters
Galima Bukharbayeva, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
HARASSED
Uzbek authorities detained and expelled journalists covering civil unrest in the northeastern city of Andijan.
Shamil Baygin, a Reuters correspondent, and Galima Bukharbayeva, a correspondent for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, were detained by Andijan police late on May 13 and released on May 14. They left Andijan on May 14, fearing retaliation by Uzbek security services, the information Web site Fergana.ru reported.
Bukharbayeva reported on May 13 that troops in front of the Andijan administration building were shooting indiscriminately at protesting civilians, including women and children. A bullet pierced the backpack Bukharbayeva carried on her back, but she was uninjured, Fergana.ru said.
MAY 14, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
Dmitry Yasminov, Ren TV
Vikrot Muzalevsky, Ren TV
HARASSED
Uzbek authorities detained and expelled journalists covering civil unrest in the northeastern city of Andijan.
Reporter Yasminov and cameraman Muzalevsky, of the Russia-based Ren TV, were detained as they were trying to enter Andijan to report for the news program, "Nedelya." They had traveled for several hours from the capital, Tashkent, and had reached the outskirts of the city when they were stopped by local administration officials who confiscated their documents and took them to a police station.
The journalists were released after several hours but local administration officials banned them from filming in Andijan. They were escorted back to Tashkent late Saturday, according to local reports.
JUNE 4, 2005
Posted: June 21, 2005
Tulkin Karayev, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED
Authorities in the southern Uzbek city of Karshi detained, arrested, and sentenced Tulkin Karayev, a correspondent for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), on charges of hooliganism.
On Saturday, June 4, an unknown woman attacked Karayev and human rights activist Gaybulla Djalilov, who was accompanying him, on the street in downtown Karshi, according to local press reports. When Karayev went to the local police station in Karshi to report the incident, he discovered that his female attacker had already declared herself the victim of the attack.
Without due process, police detained Karayev and arrested him on charges of hooliganism. A local court then sentenced the journalist to 10 days in prison, IWPR reported. IWPR produces a news Web site and trains journalists in conflict zones around the world.
Before the incident, Karayev had complained of an increased surveillance of his apartment by security services. He also said that security service agents had approached his family and friends, IWPR reported.
On June 2, Karayev informed the IWPR London office that a car without license plates had been surveying his house for several days, IWPR Central Asia Editor Filip Noubel told CPJ in a telephone interview.
Karayev is one of the few independent journalists who covered the May 13 unrest in the northeast city of Andigian, during which security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters, killing 500 civilians, according to international press and human rights reports. Uzbek authorities claim that fewer than 200 people were killed.
Since the unrest, the Uzbek state media has severely criticized independent journalists such as Karayev. A May 25 article in the Uzbek-state newspaper Pravda Vostoka, titled "In defense of the national sovereignty of the Uzbek people," called Uzbekistan IWPR correspondents "enemies of the state" and called for the dissemination of their names and photos on national television.
JUNE 16, 2005
Posted: June 21, 2005
Tulkin Karayev, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
HARASSED
Police in the southern Uzbek city of Karshi stopped Karayev as he was trying to travel to the capital, Tashkent, to seek medical treatment, Karayev told CPJ in a telephone interview. The detention came just two days after Karayev was released from prison after serving 10 days on a specious charge of "hooliganism."
Two police officers detained Karayev and human rights activist Akmal Akhmedov at around 8 a.m. on June 16, took them to the local Interior Ministry office, and held them for five hours without charges or explanation. Police told Karayev and Akhmedov they were executing "orders from above," before seizing their passports and releasing them, Karayev told CPJ.
Karayev was going to Tashkent to seek medical treatment after his health deteriorated during a hunger strike to protest his prison sentence. Karayev, who is based in Karshi, is unable to travel without his passport. Uzbek authorities at checkpoints throughout the country require a passport for citizens traveling internally.
"Before releasing us, police told us they were going to return our passports by the end of the day [on June 16]," Karayev told CPJ. "Yet we haven't received them to this day."
Karayev told CPJ that security agents have monitored his activities since March, questioning relatives and friends about his actions. People he believes to be agents have been following him as well, Karayev said. Surat Ikramov, head of the Independent Group for Human Rights Defenders, a Tashkent-based human rights organization, told CPJ that he fears for Karayev's safety.
JULY 18, 2005
Posted: August 2, 2005
Khalida Anarbayeva, Internews Network
Olga Narmuradova, Internews Network
LEGAL ACTION
Former director Anarbayeva and accountant Narmuradova went on trial July 18 at the Yakkasaroy District Court in Tashkent. They faced up to six months in prison if convicted on charges of publishing information and producing videos without a license. The U.S.-based media training and advocacy group disputed the charges.
The prosecution also called for the closure of Internews offices.
Although the trial was supposed to be open to the public, the judge ordered journalists, representatives of media and human rights organizations, and international diplomats out of the courtroom, according to Internews lawyer Fyodor Kravchenko and press reports.
Internews said it had not produced videos or information without a license; instead, the group said it trained Uzbek television stations to produce their own reports on issues such as human rights, The Associated Press reported. Uzbek authorities have a record of harassing Internews. In September 2004, ahead of parliamentary elections, a Tashkent court shut the organization for six months for such technical violations as a failure to register their logo.
JULY 18, 2005
Posted: August 2, 2005
Erkin Yakubjanov, International Media Support
IMPRISONED
Yakubjanov was detained for 11 days without charge. Yakubjanov was taken into custody by Uzbek border guards at the Dustlik checkpoint as he tried to cross into the Uzbek side of the Ferghana Valley. Yakubjanov was traveling to Andijan to prepare a report for the radio project "Dolina Mira" (Valley of Peace), which is supported by the Danish media organization International Media Support (IMS). Border guards detained him, claiming he tried to interview them without proper accreditation, IMS representative Michael Andersen told CPJ.
Yakubjanov was later transferred to a Security Services (SNB) detention center in the capital, Tashkent, and kept there until July 29, when authorities released him without explanation. "Dolina Mira," a series of radio reports focusing on life in the Ferghana Valley, is jointly prepared by Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek journalists. The project has been well-received by listeners in all three countries, particularly since Uzbek authorities have censored information from the northeast city of Andijan after unrest on May 13. Security forces opened fire on antigovernment demonstrators in Andijan that day, killing hundreds of civilians.
AUGUST 11-12, 2005
Posted: August 18, 2005
Igor Rotar. Forum 18
HARASSED, EXPELLED
Russian journalist Igor Rotar, who was detained by Uzbek authorities in Tashkent on August 11 and put on a plane bound for Almaty, Kazakhstan, late the next day, according to local and international press reports.
Uzbek security and immigration officials detained Rotar when he arrived at the Tashkent airport, holding him incommunicado for most of two days. In an interview today with the Moscow-based news Web site Fergana.ru, Rotar said that he received no explanation for his detention and that he refused to leave the country voluntarily. Rotar had traveled to Uzbekistan on assignment for Forum 18, a human rights news Web site based in Oslo, Norway.
Uzbek authorities did not publicly comment on the deportation, but the Foreign Ministry in Tashkent issued a statement today outlining accreditation procedures for foreign correspondents. It stated that journalists may apply for temporary accreditation upon arrival, but they could be denied if they had violated Uzbek laws. The statement did not refer to Rotar specifically, nor did it state that he had violated any laws.
Furkat Sidikov, a press officer at the Uzbekistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., told CPJ in a telephone interview today that Rotar was held for "technical reasons" because he did not have accreditation from the Foreign Ministry.
Rotar told Fergana.ru that he was traveling to Uzbekistan to report on the harassment of Protestants in the Western Uzbek region of Karakalpakistan for Forum 18. He said he believes his detention was part of a broader government crackdown on the media following the May 13 massacre of anti-government protesters in the northeastern city of Andijon.
Rotar, a Central Asia correspondent for several Russian newspapers and Western Web sites, was detained by border guards after arriving Thursday at 10:25 a.m. on a flight from neighboring Kyrgyzstan, according to Forum 18.
Forum 18, citing unnamed sources in Uzbekistan, reported that border guards detained the journalist on orders from the National Security Service.
AUGUST 11-12, 2005
Posted: August 18, 2005
Igor Rotar. Forum 18
HARASSED, EXPELLED
Russian journalist Igor Rotar, who was detained by Uzbek authorities in Tashkent on August 11 and put on a plane bound for Almaty, Kazakhstan, late the next day, according to local and international press reports.
Uzbek security and immigration officials detained Rotar when he arrived at the Tashkent airport, holding him incommunicado for most of two days. In an interview today with the Moscow-based news Web site Fergana.ru, Rotar said that he received no explanation for his detention and that he refused to leave the country voluntarily. Rotar had traveled to Uzbekistan on assignment for Forum 18, a human rights news Web site based in Oslo, Norway.
Uzbek authorities did not publicly comment on the deportation, but the Foreign Ministry in Tashkent issued a statement today outlining accreditation procedures for foreign correspondents. It stated that journalists may apply for temporary accreditation upon arrival, but they could be denied if they had violated Uzbek laws. The statement did not refer to Rotar specifically, nor did it state that he had violated any laws.
Furkat Sidikov, a press officer at the Uzbekistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., told CPJ in a telephone interview today that Rotar was held for "technical reasons" because he did not have accreditation from the Foreign Ministry.
Rotar told Fergana.ru that he was traveling to Uzbekistan to report on the harassment of Protestants in the Western Uzbek region of Karakalpakistan for Forum 18. He said he believes his detention was part of a broader government crackdown on the media following the May 13 massacre of anti-government protesters in the northeastern city of Andijon.
Rotar, a Central Asia correspondent for several Russian newspapers and Western Web sites, was detained by border guards after arriving Thursday at 10:25 a.m. on a flight from neighboring Kyrgyzstan, according to Forum 18.
Forum 18, citing unnamed sources in Uzbekistan, reported that border guards detained the journalist on orders from the National Security Service.
AUGUST 30, 2005
Posted September 2, 2005
Nosir Zokirov, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
IMPRISONED
Nosir Zokirov, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was sentenced to six months in prison for insulting a security officer. Zokirov, an Uzbek who has worked for the radio's local language service for eight years, was summoned to court in the eastern city of Namangan on August 26 on charges of insulting a National Security Service (NSS) officer in a telephone call. Zokirov was detained, tried without counsel or witnesses, sentenced and imprisoned all on August 26.
The charge stemmed from a phone call Zokirov made on August 6 to the Namangan NSS office to protest pressure on poet Khaidarali Khomilov. In an interview in early August with Zokirov the poet had criticized a crackdown on May 13 in nearby Andijan where between 500 and 1000 anti-government demonstrators were shot and killed by security forces, according to eyewitnesses and human rights organizations. The authorities put the death toll at 187.
In the aftermath of the Andijan crackdown Zokirov and other reporters working for foreign media outlets faced harassment. On May 17 Zokirov's land and cell phone lines were cut. A source at his mobile service provider told Zokirov the line was shut down on "higher orders", RFE/RL said.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2005
Posted October 17, 2005
Internews Network
Legal Action
A civil court ordered the closure of the Tashkent office of Internews Network, a U.S.-based media training and advocacy organization. Internews said the court made its ruling on the basis of the August 4, 2005 criminal conviction of two Internews employees for technical violations such as broadcasting without a license and using an unregistered logo.
"They gave us one day's notice about the hearing and then sped through the proceedings at an incredible rate," said Catherine Eldridge, director of Internews Network in Uzbekistan. "The judge refused our request to call witnesses, denied all our petitions, and was blatantly biased. This is obviously a politically motivated case," she said in a statement. Internews said it planned to appeal.
The prosecution of Internews staff is part of a broader campaign of harassment of independent journalists and media who do not toe the government line. The crackdown intensified after troops in the northeast city of Andijan shot dead between 500 and 1,000 civilians during anti-government protests on May 13, according to local and international human rights organizations and eyewitnesses.
Former Internews director Khalida Anarbayeva and accountant Olga Narmuradova will not serve a six-month jail sentence under the terms of a presidential amnesty for women but they will have criminal records, according to press reports and CPJ sources.
OCTOBER 26, 2005
Posted: December 2, 2005
BBC
Deutsche Welle
The Associated Press
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
HARASSED
The BBC World Service closed its Tashkent office and withdrew staff because of continued harassment by authorities because of its reporting on the May 13 massacre in the northeast city of Andijan. Other local and foreign media have been intimidated since the killing of between 500 and 1000 anti-government protesters by troops.
Since September 2005 authorities have carried out a smear campaign in the state media accusing journalists from the BBC, Deutsche Welle, The Associated Press, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) of organizing "informational attacks" against Uzbekistan and trying to use the protest in Andijan to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state, according to local press reports.
BBC correspondent Monica Whitlock left Uzbekistan in June and another six BBC staffers have followed her since being threatened and harassed by authorities, the BBC said.
The Uzbek service of RFE/RL has documented more than 30 cases of attacks against its journalists, including Nosir Zokirov who was imprisoned in August for six months on a charge related to his reporting on Andijan.
NOVEMBER 10, 2005
POSTED: December 2, 2005
Aleksei Volosevich, Ferghana.ru
ATTACKED
Five unidentified men attacked Volosevich, one of the few independent reporters still working in Uzbekistan who witnessed the Andijan massacre, near his apartment in the capital Tashkent. Volosevich, is a correspondent for the Moscow-based Central Asia news Web site Ferghana.ru.. He told CPJ the men knocked him to the ground, kicked him, and then doused him with paint which temporarily blinded him. Volosevich, 38, was not hospitalized.
The assault came amid a campaign, documented by CPJ, of intimidation and repression against the independent media by President Islam Karimov's government. It was part of a broad effort to obscure the full extent of the May 13 massacre in the eastern city of Andijan.
Volosevich said he left his apartment to meet an unknown man who had telephoned him claiming to have information related to Andijan. "The next thing I knew, I was on the ground and drenched with paint. The whole thing happened in a matter of 10 seconds. One of the attackers told me that from now on I would not sell my country," Volosevich said.
When he staggered back home, Volosevich saw several teenagers run out of his building. They had covered the walls around his apartment with anti-Semitic slogans such as "Here is the home of a corrupt journalist, a Jew, who has no idea what true Islam is," Volosevich said. Volosevich, who is not Jewish, said, "I think authorities just told those teenagers to scribble something on my walls...but I was attacked because of my journalism." He accused the Uzbek security services of being behind the assault.
A security services spokesman rejected the claim and termed it a provocation, the Interfax news agency reported. Authorities have yet to open a criminal case into the attack, Volosevich said.
Volosevich was one of the few independent journalists who covered Andijan, where security forces fired indiscriminately at anti-government protesters, killing between 500 and 1,000 civilians, according to local and international human rights organizations and eyewitnesses. The government puts the death toll at 187 and claims those killed were mostly "foreign-financed terrorists." At least seven reporters who covered Andijan have been forced into exile by threats and intimidation, according to CPJ research.
Two weeks ago Volosevich published a critical article on the politicized trial of 15 Uzbek men charged with terrorism, attempting to overthrow the state by organizing the Andijan "uprising", hostage-taking, and murder. Some of the charges carry the death penalty. All men pleaded guilty at the opening of the trial on September 20. Human rights advocates said the accused had confessed under duress.