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  • TOL: Don't Read All About It

    DON'T READ ALL ABOUT IT
    by Jean-Christophe Peuch

    Transitions Online
    March 6 2008
    Czech Republic

    Old pros in the CIS are getting more adept at quashing independent
    voices. From EurasiaNet.

    The ongoing effort by Armenia's government to dam the free flow of
    information during the country's post-election state of emergency fits
    into a distressing pattern concerning press freedom in Commonwealth
    of Independent States. Far from thriving, independent media in most
    CIS nations are struggling merely to keep operating.

    Independent-minded journalists and media often face adversity and
    retribution if they strive to fill a traditional watchdog role. In
    Azerbaijan, for example, a Baku district court on 18 January sentenced
    Avaz Zeynalli, the editor in chief of the Xural newspaper, to 18
    months of corrective labor and a hefty fine on charges of defaming
    the director of a state-owned publishing house in a series of critical
    articles.

    A few days later, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
    reported that Uzeyir Cafarov, a journalist for Azerbaijan's Baki
    Zaman daily had received numerous death threats from anonymous callers
    after he had written critical reports on the army and Defense Ministry.

    In Kazakhstan, an Astana court on 14 February ordered the closure
    of the Zakon i Pravosudiye weekly, alleging that mistakes had been
    made during its registration. Staffers insist the court ruling is
    merely a pretext for muzzling an independent newspaper known for its
    investigative reports on corruption.

    Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme
    Situations, says the media environment in most of post-Soviet
    countries - including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Central Asia, and Russia -
    is "appalling." Panfilov's Moscow-based media watchdog specializes
    in monitoring and protecting the rights of journalists across the CIS.

    By contrast, Georgia has expunged its criminal code of repressive
    articles traditionally used against journalists. Yet Panfilov says
    that even there the situation "is not ideal."

    "Many post-Soviet countries are following Russia's example, as if they
    were competing among each other to create the worst possible conditions
    for independent journalism," Panfilov told a roundtable discussion in
    Vienna last month. The event was organized by the Organizations for
    Security and Cooperation in Europe's representative on media freedom,
    Milkos Haraszti.

    In Panfilov's view, independent journalism in Belarus and Uzbekistan
    now faces "total disappearance," while in Turkmenistan there are
    still no indications that the economic liberalization initiated by
    President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov will allow for even partially
    independent media to emerge.

    In Tajikistan, the media remain "economically very weak" and,
    therefore, vulnerable to official pressure. According to Panfilov,
    President Imomali Rahmon's administration in Dushanbe "is unwilling
    to allow competitors [to] challenge state propaganda."

    Media conditions in Kazakhstan, a country where the influx of energy
    wealth is helping to create a middle class, have deteriorated in
    recent years. Most major media holdings are now either in the hands
    of the state, or are controlled by close friends and relatives of
    President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

    Following the fall into disgrace of Nazarbayev's now former son-in-law
    Rakhat Aliyev, the latter's extensive media holdings - including
    the Kazakhstan Today news agency, the Karavan newspaper, and the KTK
    television channel - were transferred to the state under the direction
    Nazarbayev's former spokesman Zhanai Omarov.

    Kazakh authorities in 2007 temporarily shut down several
    opposition-leaning websites for publishing documents pertaining to
    the Aliyev-Nazarbayev feud, and the government is now striving to
    finalize plans to put domestic Internet content under strict control.

    "The government wants to be an active player in Internet technologies
    from a content perspective. We must offer [users] content,"
    Kazakhstan's State Computerization and Communications Agency head
    Kuanyshbek Yesekeyev said in December.

    FINANCIAL PRESSURE

    Post-Soviet governments are particularly adept at putting financial
    pressure on independent media.

    Addressing the OSCE roundtable discussion, Council of Europe Human
    Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg mentioned Azerbaijan, where
    he said businessmen are being advised to not place advertisements in
    newspapers that are critical of authorities.

    Another favored weapon of post-Soviet governments is the denial of
    frequencies, or the revocation of licenses to independent radio and
    television broadcasters - a practice that is common in Azerbaijan
    and Tajikistan, among others.

    Yet it is physical violence that poses perhaps the greatest threat
    to independent journalists.

    Alisher Saipov According to the Almaty-based Adil Soz media watchdog,
    three independent Kazakh journalists - Yernazar Ibrayev, Tolegen
    Kibatov and Ilyas Gafurov - were murdered in 2007 under mysterious
    circumstances. Another 10 reporters were physically assaulted and
    Zakon i Pravosudiye corruption expert Oralgaisha Zhabagtaikyzy has
    been missing for almost a year.

    In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbek journalist Alisher Saipov
    was gunned down in the southern city of Osh in October 2007, in what
    observers believe was a politically motivated act. The Brussels-based
    International Crisis Group says it suspects Tashkent of involvement
    in the murder. A member of Uzbekistan's exiled Erk opposition party,
    Saipov was the editor in chief of the Siyosat weekly. The Kyrgyz
    government suggests the journalist may have been killed because of
    his alleged involvement with banned radical Islamic groups and has
    stopped investigating the case. CPJ and other international media
    watchdogs remain skeptical of the Islamic radical-connection claim,
    and demand that the official probe resume.

    Whether there is a link between Saipov's assassination and Uzbekistan's
    23 December presidential ballot is unclear. Yet, as a rule, the number
    of attacks on independent and opposition media in the former Soviet
    Union tends to increase around elections.

    In Georgia, for instance, security forces in November raided the
    headquarters of the opposition Imedi TV amid a general crackdown
    on opposition protesters, ransacking the premises, and ordering all
    staff out of the building.

    Panfilov told the OSCE media panel that in Armenia more than 10
    journalists were physically assaulted during the months preceding
    the 19 February presidential polls. He said similar incidents took
    place in Kyrgyzstan prior to the 16 December legislative ballot.

    Firdevs Robinson, editor of the BBC World Service's Central Asia
    and Caucasus Service, in turn noted that with presidential elections
    approaching in Azerbaijan "there seems to be less and less room for
    dissenting voices."

    On 28 December, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned five
    of eight opposition journalists convicted under criminal charges
    described as politically motivated by human rights groups. The three
    who remain in jail - Qanimat and Mirza Sakit Zahidov of the Azadliq
    daily and Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of Realny Azerbaijan and Gundalik
    Azarbaycan - were joined by Bizim Yol daily reporter Musfiq Huseynov,
    who was handed a six-year jail sentence on bribery charges in January.

    The OSCE's Haraszti told a 13 December hearing of the U.S. Commission
    on Cooperation and Security in Europe that the moratorium on the
    criminalization of journalists Aliyev had declared in 2004 seemed
    to be no longer in force. In addition, he said "critically-minded
    reporters" were now being sentenced for alleged criminal offences
    unrelated to their professional activities, such as hooliganism,
    or possession of drugs.

    Criminalization of journalists - which is also a common practice
    in Kazakhstan - can only encourage rampant violence against
    representatives of the media and must therefore be banned, Haraszti
    said during the OSCE panel discussion.

    Jean-Christophe Peuch is a Vienna-based writer who specializes in
    the Caucasus and Central Asia. A partner post from EurasiaNet.
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