FEB. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was concerned about the Azerbaijani authorities’ harassment of journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Last week, officials in Azerbaijan accused Ms Ismayilova of passing documents on prominent Azerbaijanis to US officials. She has previously uncovered government corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that four out of six of Tajikistan’s main internet providers have blocked access to its Tajik news site since Feb. 22. Tajikistan has a poor press freedom record and has previously blocked access to international news websites.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek tech developers, possibly under orders from the authorities, unveiled their version of twitter called bamboo.uz. Opponents of the government have described bamboo, which lets users post messages of up to 700 characters, as another attempt to control social media.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Media groups accused the Kazakh authorities of bias after Police arrested four bloggers who had protested against perceived favouritism shown by Almaty mayor’s Akhmetzhan Yessimov. Three of the bloggers were arrested protesting outside a restaurant where Mr Yessimov was dining with favoured bloggers and another was arrested six days later.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a new report, the media freedom lobby group the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Azerbaijan as one of the worst 10 countries in the world for locking up reporters and editors the authorities dislike. Media and human rights groups have criticised Azerbaijan throughout the year for its heavy handed treatment of journalists.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Concerned that outside forces would influence its reporters, Uzbek state media banned its journalists from travelling abroad and from communicating with foreigners and diplomats in Uzbekistan. Media freedom and human rights lobby groups regularly criticise Uzbekistan as one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The number of people using the internet in Uzbekistan has grown by 18% over the past year to around 7.1m people, media quoted Uzbek President Islam Karimov as saying. As a democratic tool, though, the internet is severely limited in Uzbekistan as the authorities heavily monitor users. The population of Uzbekistan is 30m.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Often dubbed reclusive and authoritarian, Turkmenistan took the rare step of inviting 80 foreign sports journalists to look around its new sports stadium built to host the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Turkmenistan’s main objective, however fanciful, is to host the Olympic Games, one day.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The media lobby group Reporters Without Borders handed its 2013 press freedom award to imprisoned Uzbek journalist Muhammad Bekzhanov. Bekzhanov edited an opposition newspaper until he was imprisoned in 1999 for plotting to a series of terrorist attacks.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced Sardar Alibeili, editor of the independent P.S. Nota newspaper, to four years in jail for attacking another man in the street in July. Human rights groups around the world said the charges were false and accused the authorities of clamping down on free speech.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)