Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Georgian government says wants to set up media watchdog

TBILISI, MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili proposed setting up a media ombudsman, a move that several senior media figures and civil society activists said was an attempt to exert more control over the media.

The announcement came only days after the European Court for Human Rights indefinitely suspended the Georgian Supreme Court’s order to hand ownership of the opposition Rustavi 2 TV channel to a pro-government businessman.

In his statement, Mr Kvirikashvili said European values and democracy needed strengthening in Georgia, including defending the media.

“We are determined to defend European values in our country,” he said. “This is why I offer to establish the Office of Media Ombudsman, consisting of the most reputable international media rights observers. Today, I am publicly inviting for cooperation European media experts and specialists who have proved in deed their professionalism.”

Critics of the Georgian Dream coalition have said that the government’s real aim, as shown by its determination to hand the troublesome Rustavi-2 back to Kibar Khalvashi, is to control the media which has broadly retained its legacy of supporting the political party of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Nestani, a human rights activist, told the Conway Bulletin that any new media watchdog set up by the Georgian Dream would find it impossible to be politically independent.

“They [the government] appoint them [the ombudsmen]. If the media Ombudsman office is created then it should be independent from the government’s control otherwise I don’t see a reason for creating it,” she said.

The row over Rustavi-2’s ownership has soured Georgia’s relations with Europe just as it has won visa- free access to the Schengen Zone. Georgia has perused a determined pro-EU foreign policy.

The row has also triggered some of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Tbilisi for years. More are expected this week.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Kyrgyz prosecutors to sue media for defamation

MARCH 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Kyrgyzstan accused two media outlets, Radio Free Europe’s Kyrgyz service and zanoza.kg, of defaming President Almazbek Atambayev and threatened to sue them, worrying free speech campaigners. These free speech campaigners said that this was more evidence that free speech in Kyrgyzstan was worsening after a leak at the start of the year showed security forces were tracking people who criticise the president on the internet.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Uzbekistan deports BBC reporter

MARCH 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — BBC journalist Hamid Ismailov said he was detained and deported when he tried to enter Uzbekistan through Tashkent airport (March 4). Under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who took over as president in September 2016, Uzbekistan has appeared to become marginally more free.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 4 2017)

 

Georgian and Euro courts argue over TV channel

TBILISI, MARCH 2/3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) clashed with Georgia’s Supreme Court after it ordered an opposition TV station to be turned over to a pro-government businessman.

The day after the Georgian Supreme Court’s decision, which free speech activists branded an authoritarian move aimed at gagging Georgia’s most popular TV channel Rustavi-2, the ECHR overruled it and suspend its judgment for a week, an order Georgia’s justice ministry grumpily said it would comply with.

“We will follow this procedure,” Reuters quoted Georgian justice minister Tea Tsulukiani as saying.

The row over the ownership of Rustavi-2 has been moving through Georgia’s courts since 2015. It has focused on a claim by Kibar Khalvashi, a businessman sympathetic to the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, that he had been forced by the government of Mikheil Saakashvili to give up ownership of the TV channel.

On March 2, after several rounds in courts, the Supreme Court ruled that Rustavi-2 should be handed over to Mr Khalvashi.

For Europe, the OSCE and the United States, the forceful switch of Rustavi-2’s ownership to an owner sympathetic to the government was yet more proof that the Georgian Dream has politicised the courts. They have previously accused the Georgian Dream, which has ruled Georgia since 2012, of using the courts to imprison its opponents, claims it has denied,

In a thinly coded warning, the OSCE’s media chief Dunja Mijatovic said: “Possible attempts to influence the editorial policy of Rustavi-2, a major independent media outlet, would seriously undermine the pluralistic media environment.”

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)

 

Azerbaijani court sends blogger to prison

MARCH 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan imprisoned a blogger known for criticising the government, drawing fresh criticism from media and human rights activists who have complained of a crackdown on the dwindling band of dissenters (March 3).

Mehman Huseynov, known for blogs that exposed official corruption, was convicted of libel, a tactic that his supporters say has been used by the Azerbaijani authorities to silence journalists, lawyers, opposition activists and NGO workers.

A group of 24 human rights organisations signed a joint letter calling for Huseynov to be released.

“Today’s sentencing and jailing of Mehman Huseynov is outrageous – another example of Azerbaijan’s best and brightest being targeted for expressing opinions critical of the ruling Aliyev regime,” Rebecca Vincent, UK Bureau Director for Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement.

“It also shows that nothing has changed since the release of a number of high-profile political prisoners last year.”

Members of the European Parliament have clashed with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev over his treatment of dissenters, although the European Union has dodged taking any official action. It needs to keep relations with Azerbaijan strong as it plans to buy most of its gas from the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea.

Huseynov said on Jan. 9 that police had detained him for verbally abusing a passerby. He said that the police had then beaten him for resisting arrest.

The next day, on Jan. 10, police arrested Huseynov for slander linked to, what they said, were his false allegations that they had beaten him.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)

Uzbek authorities detain rights campaigner

MARCH 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan detained human rights campaigner Elena Urlaeva, Reuters reported quoting a video message she posted on the internet. In her video message, Ms Urlaeva said that she had been detained, beaten and taken to a psychiatric unit in Tashkent. She is best known for campaigning against forced labour in the cotton industry. She had been due to meet with the World Bank to discuss forced labour violations.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)

Uzbek authorities release reporter after 18 years

FEB. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan released opposition activist and journalist Muhammad Bekjanov from prison after 18 years. Mr Bekjanov, considered one of the longest serving political prisoners in the world, was sent to prison in 1999 after a trial linked to a car bomb in the capital, Tashkent. His supporters have always said that he is innocent.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

 

Kazakh authorities clamping down on rights groups

FEB. 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York-based Human rights Watch said that the authorities in Kazakhstan have been harassing two local human rights groups by falsely alleging that their tax receipts were wrong. HRW said that International Legal Initiative Foundation and Liberty had both faced tax audits. The Kazakh authorities have not commented. Rights groups have previously accused Kazakhstan of using official channels to close down groups that it finds a nuisance.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Kazakh journalist says was beaten

FEB. 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Supporters of jailed Kazakh journalist Zhanbolat Mamay said that he has been beaten in prison. Mr Mamay was arrested earlier this year for alleged financial crimes and for being linked to exiled opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov. He was the editor of Tribuna, one of the few genuinely independent newspaper left in Kazakhstan. Opposition groups have accused Kazakhstan of cracking down on the media.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

Thousands protest in Georgian capital to support Rustavi-2 TV channel

TBILISI, FEB. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — An estimated 10,000 people protested in central Tbilisi against what they said was the attempted silencing of TV channel Rustavi-2’s anti-government rhetoric.

The demonstration was one of the biggest for several years in the Georgian capital and was a reminder that street-level politics are still a potent force in Georgia.

Rustavi-2, one of Georgia’s most popular TV channels and a supporter of the opposition UNM party, suspended broadcasts for two days before the demonstration.

Zaal Udumashvili, deputy director of Rustavi-2 and anchor of its main news program, told the demonstrators that the fight to save it was a fight to save democracy itself.

“Rustavi-2 is back on the air from now on, which means that the channel will never go off again,” he was quoted by media as saying.

“If Rustavi-2 falls, this will not be the fall of only one television. This will mean that there will be no space left for covering your problems, for bringing your problems to the entire country.”

Rustavi-2 is the focus of an ownership struggle currently playing out in the Supreme Court. The protesters said that the Georgian Dream government was trying to seize the channel from Giorgi and Levan Karamanishvili, associates of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, through businessman Kibar Khalvashi. Mr Khalvashi is a former co-owner of Rustavi-2 who says his stake in the TV channel was taken from him illegally.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)