CPJ writes to Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to express serious concerns regarding threats to journalists, censorship of independent news outlets and the internet, and restrictions on accreditation of journalists in Tajikistan as the country prepares to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in 2020.
Washington, D.C., September 10, 2019–Websites and email addresses belonging to embattled independent news agency Asia Plus in Tajikistan have been down since August 19, according to the agency and Radio Ozodi, the Tajik-language service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
In July 2019, Humayra Bakhtiyar, a Tajik journalist living in exile who was recently granted asylum in a European Union country, told CPJ in a phone call that Tajik authorities have harassed and intimidated her family over the past several years as retribution for her critical reporting.
Washington, D.C., July 1, 2019 — Tajikistan authorities should immediately reinstate video journalist Barotali Nazarov’s press accreditation and cease using accreditations as a means of censorship, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
New York, July 11, 2018–A Tajik court today found independent journalist Khayrullo Mirsaidov guilty of embezzling and misusing state fund and false reporting to police and sentenced him to 12 years in a high-security prison, according to media reports and the journalist’s friends with whom CPJ spoke. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the ruling…
New York, November 28, 2016―Tajik authorities should immediately reinstate the accreditation of six radio journalists suspended following a broadcaster’s refusal to remove a story from its website, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Dear U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to bring to your attention the deteriorating climate for press freedom in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. As you prepare to head to these countries later this week, we ask that you put press freedom on the agenda of your meetings with high-level government officials.
Though a new media bill was signed into law, the legislation failed to decriminalize insulting the president or alleviate other repressive measures, and had no immediate effect on the climate of press freedom ahead of the November presidential vote. To pave the way for a smooth re-election of Emomali Rahmon to a fourth term in…