Tag Archives: media

Uzbek government accuses newspaper of terrorism

NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting just how sensitive the Uzbek authorities are towards the Andijan killings of 2005, prosecutors charged Tashkent-based newspaper Novosti Uzbekistana with promoting terrorism after it published a photograph from the day. Rights groups say hundreds of people died in Andijan after police opened fire on anti-government demonstrators. The authorities say a military operation killed terrorists.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)

BBC airs Central Asia spoof

OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Utter the word Borat to a Kazakh diplomat and he or she may cringe.

It took years to purge the image of Kazakhstan — which wants to be seen as a modern, progressive country — from Borat, the boorish fictional character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his 2006 film “Borat: Cultural learnings of America make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”.

Now, though, it appears that the BBC has created another comedy to, potentially at least, poke more fun at the Central Asian republics.

The BBC will broadcast the first episode of its new three-part comedy on Oct. 23 called “Ambassadors”. It’s essentially a sideways, tongue-in-cheek look at the British diplomatic service and the challenges of a foreign posting in a little-known and far-away country.

The twist, for Central Asia at least, is that the fictional little-known and far-away country is called Tazbekistan. No prizes for guessing the mish-mash of republics it is based upon.

And there’s more. The pre-broadcasting blurb goes further. The plot is based around an incoming British ambassador’s attempts to get to grips with Tazbekistan’s idiosyncrasies. This includes being oil-rich and having a woeful human rights record.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)

Reporter dies in Northern Kazakhstan

OCT. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Igor Larra, a reporter for the independent Svoboda Slova newspaper in the city of Aktobe in northern Kazakhstan, has died of injuries he sustained when a group of unidentified men attacked him in August, media reported. News websites said that the attack may have been linked to his work.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 156, published on Oct. 16 2013)

Health of imprisoned Uzbek journalist deteriorates

OCT. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek authorities moved, Dilmurod Sayyid, a well-known journalist and critic of the government, from a prison in western Uzbekistan to a hospital in Tashkent, media reported, triggering concern that his health may be failing. A court sentence Sayyid to 12 years in prison in 2009 for extortion.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Newspaper editor jailed in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Azerbaijan handed a five year prison sentence for possessing drugs, inciting hatred and treason to Hilal Mamedov, editor of the Talyshi Sado newspaper, a Talysh-language newspaper in the south of the country.

International human rights and media lobbyists said Azerbaijani authorities were using the courts to lock up the editors of newspaper that didn’t suit their agenda.

“I am saddened to see that the hostile environment for free media in Azerbaijan has not improved but is rather growing, as yet another journalist has received a lengthy prison sentence today,” said Dunja Mijatovic, the media representative for the OSCE, Europe’s governance lobby group.

The authorities have said that Hilal Mamedov was trying to destabilise the country. They have long been suspicious of the Talysh minority, a group of roughly 100,000 people who live along the border with Iran. The interior ministry has released a statement accusing Mamedov of undermining Azerbaijan’s security with inflammatory articles in the newspaper. It also accused him of spying for Iran.

Five years ago the then-editor of Talyshi Sado, Novruzali Mamedov (no relation to Hilal Mamedov) was also imprisoned on similar charges. He died in prison. Media groups said that he had been denied adequate medical treatment.

Azerbaijan has a poor media rights record and in her statement, the OSCE’s Ms Mijatovic said this was worsening in the run up to the Oct. 9 presidential election.

Ms Mijatovic may be right. Opposition journalists in Baku have been harassed and imprisoned while pro-government journalists have received new apartments.

Hilal Mamedov’s imprisonment is different, though, and it should be viewed as part of the dispute between the Talysh and the Azerbaijani state rather than through central politics.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Newspaper is suspended and politician retires in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Early on Sept. 19 news started to filter through to Almaty’s small opposition intelligentsia that Bulat Abilov, one of their more charismatic leaders, was retiring.

At 56-years-old this could have some as a surprise, instead there was a knowing understanding.

Being an active opposition leader in Kazakhstan, even if you’re not a militant one, is exhausting. You’re increasingly marginalised and harassed. This has intensified since violence in the town of Zhanaozen, western Kazakhstan, in December 2011. At least 15 people died in fighting in Zhanaozen between police and demonstrators.

It appears as if Mr Abilov, a wealthy businessman, had just had enough.

A few days later, on Sept. 23, a court in Almaty suspended the Kazakh-language Ashyq Alan (Tribune) newspaper for three months. Its transgression was not to publish between July 10 and Aug. 21. Apparently this was in breach of its licence.

Ashyq Alan, a new weekly newspaper, is considered a critic of the government. Newspapers are not particularly influential in Kazakhstan, the readership numbers are too low, but suspending Ashyq Alan still resonates. Last year, the authorities suspended or closed a handful of opposition newspapers.

In the past week, dissenting voices in Kazakhstan have become even less audible.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Reporter disappears in Uzbekistan

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in the city of Urgench, northwest Uzbekistan, have detained Sergei Naumov, a prominent independent-minded journalist, without explanation since Sept. 21, rights groups said. Uzbekistan has one of the worst human rights records in the world and rights groups said they worried about Mr Naumov’s safety.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Election debate turns into chaos in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A TV debate between nine of the 10 people standing in Azerbaijan’s presidential election descended into farce when pro-president candidates shouted insults at Camil Hasanli, the only genuine opposition figure. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, standing for re-election, didn’t take part in the debate.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Reporter arrested in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Baku arrested opposition journalist Perviz Hashimli for smuggling weapons into Azerbaijan from neighbouring Iran. Mr Hashimli denied the charges. Human rights activists have accused the Azerbaijani government of cracking down on opposition ahead of an Oct. 9 presidential election.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

Reporter beaten in Kazakhstan

AUG. 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unknown assailants attacked and beat Igor Larra, a reporter who has written stories critical of government officials in the city of Aktobe, west Kazakhstan, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said. The attack raises questions, again, of journalists’ safety in Kazakhstan.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)