Tag Archives: media freedom

Azerbaijan releases journalist abducted in Tbilisi

MARCH 17 (The Bulletin) —  Afqan Muxtarli, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist who was kidnapped from Tbilisi in 2017 where he had been living in exile and handed over to police in Azerbaijan, was unexpectedly freed from prison in Baku (March 17). Mr Muxtarli, who was convicted of smuggling and illegally crossing the Azerbaijani-Georgian border and sent to prison for six years, always maintained that he was targeted because of his journalism. He had fled Azerbaijan in 2014 because he said that he was warned that he would be arrested. Human rights activists accused the Georgian authorities of colluding in the abduction of Mr Muxtarli. 

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Human Rights Watch says Uzbekistan is still ‘authoritarian’

MARCH 1 2020 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that although Uzbekistan has made some progress on improving its human rights record since Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president in 2016, it is still an authoritarian government where “many promising reforms continue to exist only on paper”. It said that thousands of people were still in detention on politically motivated charges and that the media was continually repressed.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

European Court for Human Rights says Azerbaijan jailed reporter to punish her

FEB. 28 2020 (The Bulletin) — The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Azerbaijan had imprisoned journalist Khadija Ismayilova in 2015 to “silence and punish her for her work” and ordered the government to pay her compensation of 20,000 euros. Ms Ismaylova, a journalist who has reported on government corruption, was released in 2016 after spending 537 days in jail. She had been sentenced to 7-1/2 years in jail for financial crimes that rights groups said were fabricated. This is the third ECHR ruling in favour of Ms Ismayilova against the Azerbaijani government. She said, though, that it has ignored the other rulings.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Attackers beat anti-corruption website editor in Bishkek

BISHKEK/Jan. 9 2020 (The Bulletin) — A group of men attacked and beat Bolot Temirov, editor of the anti-corruption website FactCheck, near his office in Bishkek one month after he published information accusing the state customs department of corruption.

Rights activists have said that the attitude of the authorities in Kyrgyzstan, once considered a relative bastion of free speech in Central Asia, had worsened significantly in 2019.

Since Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Berlin-based Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Bishkek-based Kloop led publication of an in-depth investigation into official corruption, media websites have been hacked and their bank accounts frozen.

Mr Temirov, the editor of FactCheck, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he needed paramedic assistance after the attack and that he had filed a complaint to the authorities.

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— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020

— Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Kyrgyzstan’s government targets anti-corruption reporters

DEC. 18 2019 (The Bulletin) — Rights activists accused the Kyrgyz government of targeting news agencies who had reported on alleged corruption by senior officials by briefly closing down their websites and bank accounts. In November the Berlin-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) the Kyrgyz service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Bishkek-based news website Kloop published their investigation into money laundering in the Kyrgyz Customs Committee. Since then protesters have demanded the resignation of several officials, although the government has dodged taking action.
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— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Kyrgyz security forces want to question anti-corruption journalists

DEC. 2 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee said that it would call in for questioning journalists who worked on a corruption report produced by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Berlin-based Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Bishkek-based news website Kloop. The report highlighted organised crime and corruption at the top levels of the Kyrgyz customs service.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Freedom House says free speech has dropped in Kazakhstan

NOV. 4 (The Bulletin) — US NGO Freedom House said that free speech in Kazakhstan, alongside Sudan and Brazil, had deteriorated rapidly over the past 12 months. It said that the drop in free speech coincided with the handover of power from Nursultan Nazarbayev to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and that the government had tried to “monopolise the mobile market and implement real-time electronic surveillance”.

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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin

Belarus refuses to extradite journalist to Tajikistan

NOV. 6 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Belarus refused an extradition request made by the Tajik government for opposition activist Farhod Odinaev because of potential torture concerns. The Belarussian authorities had arrested Mr Odinaev in September as he travelled from Russia to Poland for a conference. Mr Odinaev had been a member of the now-banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin

Kazakhstan halts roll out of internet ‘snooping’ software

Aug. 7 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan halted the roll-out of an internet programme that had been heavily criticised as a surveillance system. After several international free speech and human rights organisations had complained that Kazakh telecoms companies were forcing users to install snooping software onto their browsers, Kazakhstan’s State Security Committee said that the rollout had been a test and was never meant to be comprehensive.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin

Kcell accused of spying on internet users

ALMATY/July 22 (The Bulletin) — Free speech groups accused Kazakh telecoms provider Kcell of trying to strong-arm its customers into installing a piece of spyware that will allow the authorities to snoop on their internet activity.

Kcell responded by saying that the software was not mandatory and that it was designed to protect the end user rather than spy on them.

Internet users in Kazakhstan, though, have said that when they avoided installing the software they

have been redirected to webpages telling them that the internet will be limited without the extra Kcell software.

Advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York, Courtney Radsch, said: “Authorities in Kazakhstan have a long history of jailing, censoring, and harassing journalists, and this effort to protect citizens from ‘dangerous content’ should be viewed with the utmost scepticism.”
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin