Pressure by CPJ, other groups keeps Karimov out of Prague
The Committee to Protect Journalists this week joined a campaign spearheaded by Human Rights Watch and Uzbek human rights defenders urging Czech President Milos Zeman to cancel Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov’s visit to Prague. Zeman had invited Karimov to visit this month despite the Central Asian leader’s notorious intolerance to freedom of the press and…
Karimov should uphold media pledge by freeing journalists
New York, June 27, 2013–Uzbek President Islam Karimov should follow through on his public commitment today to support his country’s journalists by releasing the unjustly jailed reporter Salidzhon Abdurakhmanov immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. News accounts have reported that the health of Abdurakhmanov, who has been imprisoned since 2008, has deteriorated in…
French news site must prove Uzbekistan is a dictatorship
When Lola Karimova, the Uzbek president’s youngest daughter, decided to sue the French online newspaper Rue89 in August for libel, she wanted to restore the reputation of her country. Or did she? Her case against one of the most irreverent Paris media outlets is slowly turning into a public relations fiasco for her and the…
Suppressed media erase memory of Andijan massacre
Five years ago today, Dilorom Abdukadirova, 44, managed to escape the heavy spray of bullets in her native Uzbek city of Andijan. On that day, government troops shot and killed hundreds of civilian protesters on the orders of President Islam Karimov. Leaving behind her husband and four children, Abdukadirova found a refuge in Australia, where…
Uzbekistan using ‘experts’ to silence journalists, activists
Having suppressed independent journalism relatively completely in the country, the authoritarian Uzbek regime has now turned to other sectors of society it perceives as threatening to its ideology. State appointed so-called “experts” on undefined Uzbek national traditions are being dispatched on a witch hunt against independent-minded individuals, including a filmmaker and an anti-HIV/AIDS activist. This dangerous policy is in…
Karimov chastises Uzbekistan’s ‘toothless’ reporters
Addressing the joint session of Uzbekistan’s parliament on Wednesday, President Islam Karimov urged his lawmakers to be more active in their work, saying that laws should address public needs, and blaming the local press corps for being “toothless” in its reporting, regional news Web site Ferghana reported. In his speech, available on the parliament’s Web site, Karimov, at…