Officials block news outlets amid massive protests
New York, May 13, 2005—Uzbek authorities shuttered several foreign and domestic media outlets today 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…
Ulugbek Abdusalomov
Authorities in the southern Jalal-Abad region arrested Abdusalomov, editor of the independent weekly Diydor, following interethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan. According to CPJ sources and press reports, men in camouflage-style uniforms, driving a black SUV without license plates, blocked Abdusalomov’s car on a Jalal-Abad street. Subsequent press reports said he was being held by Jalal-Abad…
Attacks on the Press in 2013: Kyrgyzstan
While President Almazbek Atambayev urged the state council in March to enforce rule of law and guarantee the protection of human rights, he demonstrated little political will to bring about such changes. Authorities showed no intent to revive the Uzbek-language media that thrived in southern Kyrgyzstan prior to the June 2010 conflict, in which clashes…
Attacks on the Press in 2013: Uzbekistan
Following an established trend, authoritarian Uzbek leader Islam Karimov promised to address journalists’ concerns but did not follow through by ending the repressive climate for the press in the country. The decades-long harassment against government critics has virtually wiped out the media landscape, forcing the domestic and international community to rely on rumors or leaked…
Attacks on the Press in 2012: Tajikistan
Authoritarian leader Emomali Rahmon praised journalists’ mission at a ceremony said to mark the centennial of the Tajik press, but his speech came with a contradictory message: Rahmon urged news outlets not to publish reports that could damage Tajikistan’s international image, cause pessimism, or undermine public order. Such was the gap between rhetoric and reality.…
Attacks on the Press in 2012: Kyrgyzstan
President Almazbek Atambayev and his ministers declared their commitment to press freedom and rule of law even as government agencies routinely subjected independent reporters to intimidation. Kyrgyzstan resisted domestic and international calls for the release of Azimjon Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek investigative reporter and human rights defender serving a life term on fabricated charges, including…