Analytical report on the freedom of speech in Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) during the second quarter of 2005 based on the monitoring of freedom of speech violations in Central Asian countries.

General overview of the Freedom of Speech

We started monitoring at the end of 2003. It has routinely recorded the deterioration of the freedom of speech in all four Central Asian countries, as well as the similarity of governmental actions in limiting it. The whole difference was that in some countries preference was given to its legislative limitation, in others to open tyranny and in a third group there was a lot said for democracy and freedom of speech however, nothing was ever concretely done.

The recent events in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were brought about by a sharp dissonance within a harmonious pro-power chorus. Henceforth, the Central Asian sister republics pursuing the democratisation of the society and the maintenance of the rights and liberties of the citizens, also go about this in various ways. The new government coming into power in a surge of hostility towards the former government of Kyrgyzstan will have to fulfil its election pledges first and avoid repeating mistakes that were made in the past. Similarly, the Uzbek government will have to continue the war it waged against the people. Difficult times, it seems, are awaiting journalists and the mass media, and in other Central Asian countries, of which governments will certainly prevent the repetition of the events in Kyrgyzstan.

Kazakhstan

As it was to be expected the political struggle has become more acute at the outset of the presidential elections. Let us recall, that the seven year presidential term will expire in January 2006, and that it has continuously ruled for already 15 years.  Having received a parliamentary majority in the last elections, the ruling elite are anxious, and do not hide it, of re-electing the current president and as a result preserving the status quo for another seven year term of office. At the same time political parties of the opposition claim they have grown stronger, have become firmly established and radicalised themselves. It would all have been usual - conservatives and liberals - as in other democratic countries if the governments did not start cleaning up the public and information sphere to protect their own interests. During a similar process as experience shows, public institutions as well as constitutional rights and liberties of the citizens above all suffer in the person of non governmental public organisations.  And amongst them are the fundamental rights such as the freedom of speech, assembly and association. 

In addition to earlier laws “On the resistance to extremism" and "On the introduction of changes and amendments to some legislative acts on the problem of resistance to extremism" the Parliament, ignoring protests from the national and international public, passed another three laws during the second quarter.

The constitutional specification of the foundations of so-called cases of violation of the freedom of speech extended the law “On the introduction of changes and amendments to some legislative acts on the problem of guaranteeing national security”, for which the legislation established criminal and administrative responsibility. This is also the reason for abeyance and cessation of the mass media's activity. The law also established administrative responsibility not only for the organisation of unapproved meetings, marches and assemblies, as before, but for taking part in those.

The two following laws “On the activities of subsidiaries and election of international and foreign non commercial organisations on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan” and “On the introduction of changes and amendments to some legislative acts of the RK on the issues of non commercial organisations”, essentially, not only set the prescribed activity for public organisations but also the source of their funding under the firm permissive control of bodies of the executive power. Both laws were passed by the parliament and were sent to a constitutional council by the President.

Penal proceedings were instituted against famous politicians Bulat Abilov and Zamanbek Nurkadilov for the release of their published speeches according to articles 129 and 318 of the Criminal code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Kleveta" and "on the encroachment of the honour and dignity of the President of Kazakhstan" respectively.

The editors of Respublika, have to change the name of their publications on a regular basis. In one case the Ministry of Information declared invalid the evidence about the statement on the account of the newspaper Set KZ without ground while in another case the newspaper Respublika. Delovoye Obozreniye nullified this evidence. On many occasions, newspaper issues of this edition were withdrawn from circulation without a proper court decision.

The newspaper Soz, fined 5 million Tenge by a devastating court decision on the protection of honesty and dignity at the suit of the National Security Service was only able to cancel the fine, as strange as it sounds, thanks to national demonstrations.

As it was to be expected, the famous examination of 33 public organizations by the Office of the Public Procurator that started in April of this year collapsed. Social activists explain the minor offences uncovered in the course of the examination by the imperfection and complexity of economic and tax legislation, and the fact that the money does not come from the state, which hold the courts in a state of stagnation and paralyse their activity. All these accounts, naturally, could not help negatively affecting the strengthening of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of speech and the respect of the rights of the mass media and journalists, regulated by the current legislation.

The total monitoring for the second quarter of 2005, recorded 314 articles on direct and circumstantial violation of the rights of the mass media and of journalists. During this time three journalists died. There were four attacks on journalists. Three were beaten up. Three were harmed through negligence. In 22 cases journalists were forcefully prevented from carrying out their legal professional activity. On 115 occasions, they were not given significant  publicly vested information or received limited access to such information.  In 6 cases, the mass media was withdrawn or prevented in various ways from broadcasting without justification and without a proper court decision.  In seven cases, the economic rights of the mass media were violated, and the rights of the journalists to work was also violated seven times.  At the same time 7 penal procedures were instituted against journalists. The journalists were notified of 57 suits and complaints on the protection of individual non-property rights and 5 administrative procedures were initiated. The total of the declared moral damages demanded represented over 298 million Tenge.

Kyrgyzstan

The past quarter was particularly rich in events in Kyrgyzstan, a country close and friendly to Kazakhstan. The regime of Askar Asaev, advantageously differentiates itself from its neighbour through its liberalism, however, through lack of significant economic successes, it quickly fell behind as a result of spontaneous popular unrest. The president himself fled unnoticed to his neighbour country while the opposition as it seems completely to their surprise unexpectedly seized power.

It is difficult to expect radical changes in the life of the country of the new government of Kyrgyzstan as far as fundamental institutions and values are concerned since the leaders remain unchanged. However, if the former opponents want to preserve both their reputation and power as a whole, in any case they will have to do something in the rights area and in the sphere of improvement to the direction of the economy, in order to respond to the expectations of the public. It seems that for now the new governments are fulfilling these expectations. Thus, the vice Prime Minister F. Kulov in an interview with “Argumenty i Facty” declared: “The journalists of Kyrgyzstan should themselves work out the rights of their activity, define its limits in the sphere of the freedom of speech and suggest to the government their own views of the problem… The new government will draw up its relations with the mass media on the basis of the law, and the state should interfere as little as possible in the affairs of the mass media”

In turn, vice Prime Minister A. Madamurov talked about the intentions of the government to introduce into state TV and radio companies an institute electing their president and create a monitoring committee composed of national television and radio corporations, which will organise the electoral process. Draft laws are being prepared "on television", "on the introduction of changes and additions in some legislative acts" in the appropriate departments with the collaboration of public and journalistic organisations recognized in protecting the mass media from interference in their activity, and also from groundless suits on the protection of individual non property rights and the limitation the mass media's responsibility in such suits.

Unfortunately, the analysis of the monitoring articles shows that the function of subordinate local government, which managed to stay in office, with respects to the mass media and journalists only conforms to the government’s intentions to a limited extent. Thus by decree of the police chief, journalists are not allowed to enter the territory of the Uzbek refugee camp. Local journalists also blame regional authorities in the establishment of double information blockades to this camp. The public was prevented from receiving first-hand information on the living conditions in the camp. In turn, the refugees cannot receive printed publications, which illustrate political events taking place in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

In June the riot squad broke into the editorial offices of the newspaper Meken, while collaborators from the National Security Service seized all the hard disks from the computers that were in the office. The Chief Editor of the newspaper Bermet Turdyenyazov was detained without charge and interrogated. She was only released 15 hours later. The authorities could not avoid using administrative resources during the presidential elections. Thus, the chief editor of Tribuna newspaper Irisbek Omurzakov announced in a radio in interview that: “Before the elections the state mass media focused all the attention on one politician: Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev. This did not occur even during the republic's worst times”.

Naturally, similar approaches could not adversely affect both the general situation of the freedom of speech and the observance of the rights of the mass media and journalists. The total monitoring in the past quarter recorded 122 articles on direct and indirect violations of the rights of the mass media and journalists. There were three attacks on journalists. Two were threatened with physical violence. There were 7 instances of interference in their creative activity and 4 were forcefully prevented from carrying out their professional activity. There were instances where journalists were refused or restricted access to information of significant importance to the public. Some media were prevented from broadcasting and some cases of domestic rights violations were also recorded. Unfortunately, we do not presume to claim that the situation of the freedom of speech on the whole, across the republic has improved with the arrival of the new government.

Uzbekistan

Unlike Kyrgyzstan, the popular demonstrations, which because of their size should be qualified as popular unrest ended in a great bloody tragedy, which literally shocked the international public. According to the official version, 169 people were killed during the events in Andijan. Non official figures report 500 to 700 dead.

The evidence from numerous journalists shows that an effective information blockade was implemented around the Andizhan events with one unique informational source: the power structures and with one point of view: the government’s. Thus, a letter from the deputy prime minister that it is necessary to shed light on the events in Andizhan starting based on the address of the president during his press conference on 14 and 17th May entered the mass media. Here is the speech he pronounced: “…journalists write that all these colourful revolutions are the manifestation of freedom and democracy… Tell me, is it possible to develop democracy through these means? Right now, I imagine that tomorrow you will start to develop this thought. And I know that tomorrow, you will be dealing with such orders. We do not know how this will all happen. The one who pays is the one who orders the music. No Matter How independent you are, you will fulfil the requests that are demanded of you." Well. No more no less. All the dissidence about the ways of developing the state and the society seems to be an order and conspiracy by the imperialistic foreign force.  

Following a similar logic, one might ask who then orders and pays for the articles in government media and to what purpose?

In occurrence, it seems, that again the guilty are not the paupers of the mass population; but the mass media, the right protectors and journalists who do not see things this way understand and write. Therefore, they agitate, provoke and incite. Realise where you are working now, added the president, addressing the journalists, the people who live here are totally different with totally different opinions... The mentality of these people is narrowly differentiated from the mentality of the people in Georgia and of Ukraine." Again the special way of development. It is as if each person did not have to feed properly three times a day, possess, love and teach children, possess a home and a be well provided for in their old age.

But for a start each citizen, probably, must possess access to public and varied information, moreover, that such access be guaranteed by the Constitution. However high was the informational craving in those tragic days, it suffices to say, that the most popular information analytical site in the country fergana.ru choked from the number of hits which exceed 500 per second.

At the same time, regarding access to information from the place of the events, the president said: “I think that the issue permitting the journalists to go to Andizhan is the resort of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which grants the possibility to come to Andizhan and see what is going on there.  But my opinion goes like this: I do not know such countries, which would authorise journalists to set off there, where military clashes are taking place… But I think that tomorrow this possibility will be presented… »

Among this, as during the events, as well as after them, Russian television channels stopped broadcasting. The temporary accreditation of foreign journalists, as announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is only granted through written address of the management of the corresponding media during two weeks. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs may refuse to grant a journalist accreditation or check it in case of violating the laws of the country.

Governmental inspection of the communications of Tashkent distributed a memo to studio managers of cable television, to which all private studios had to agree have to move to reception and broadcasting "of a unique signal of the main station by 6th June or risk of cessation of their activity".

It ended both the visits of the diplomats and the journalists in Andijan. They were simply shown around the streets of the town in a closed bus not given the possibility talk at discretion with the inhabitants of the city and visit the places where the fighting is going on, the hospitals and the morgues. As the representative of the US Department of State Richard Boger announced, « the bus excursion in no way is equivalent or at least remotely equivalent to a full and trustworthy investigation.

The affair of the information blockade of the events in Andizhan is not confined in itself. The monitoring of the second quarter recorded 6 attacks against journalists. Three were threatened with violence. They illegally held agencies of law and order in 12 cases. Many journalists lost their jobs. In practice they entered charges against journalists, whose opinion differs from the official line in the treason of the interests of the people and the State, bans to associate with these journalists. Such concepts such as « traitor of the people » have even become popular along with the expulsion of journalists abroad of one or another territory. Thus for instance, in response to the information « the Uzbek Senator accused the population of Andizhan of parricide », publicly on the site fergana.ru by journalist D. Karimov on behalf of U. Yarmankulov, the journalist was asked to write an application about the dismissal and warned that in the region he now was an unwanted figure.

The whole monitoring in the past quarter recorded 162 articles on direct and indirect violations of the rights of the mass media and journalists set by the legislation in force in Uzbekistan. Moreover, to all appearances, it is only the tip of the iceberg, as in the country, astounding bloody clashes can hardly sum up such « nonsense » as the observance of the human rights.

Tajikistan

Tajikistan seems to be the last peculiar island of stability a crucible of the civil war. In the past few years a steady and fast economic growth has been observed. The ruling elite although not always skilfully and frankly, successfully manoeuvres between opposing political forces. President Pahmonov became more published and began to talk about democracy, for instance in guaranteeing transparency of the government’s activities in elements of expenditure of the means of the budget and credits in turn obliged managers of ministries and departments to regulate/organise co-operation with the mass media, guaranteeing the holding of press conferences and direct telephone conversations with mass media representatives.

They are not left behind by the president or the leaders of the regions. Thus, the governor of the Cogdiski region in addition to a daily press conference, obliged the relevant departments to organise days of reception of citizens with the collaboration of journalists. The manager of the press services of Gorno-Badakhshan autonomyous region, Sh. Avzaloyev, said during the first press conference: “From now on, journalists shouldn't have problems with receiving information from primary sources for which each week will be accompanied by a press conference with the collaboration of the managers of various departments”. Starting from journalists requests, during the first press conference bank managers of the region ??? and financial administration were invited.

Journalists also celebrate the fact that it is gradually becoming easier for them to access any public significant information in Kulyab independently from the orientation or political affiliation of their newspaper.

Unfortunately, not everything changes so fast in these places particularly in remote parts of the country. Thus a journalist and member of the international confederation of journalistic unions D. Talibov was found guilty according to articles 237, 316 and 147 of the criminal code of the Republic of Tadzhikistan of "hooliganism”, “exceeding his official duties” and "violating the security of residence", and was arrested as preventive punishment. Another journalist,–assistant to the chief  editor of the newspaper "Neruy Sukhan" V. Odinayev was sentenced to 1 year of correctional work according to article 322 paragraph 1 "negligence" and quite nonsensically. Allegedly for the publication of slanderous material. Then what has this to do with negligence?

Journalists of the Russian BBC service A. Sarkorova and her colleague suffered insults from colleagues of Interior Department’s patrol duty of the Sino district in Dushanbe. Due to the adjuration of complaints against them, the manager of this department Colonel Chakayev accused them of insubordination to the collaborators of those institutions, detained them without evidence and insulted them using uncensored words. The journalists were released under the conditions that they kept quiet. Journalists have occasionally been threatened. In 25 cases the rights of journalists to access public significant information were either refused or limited. The whole monitoring in the past quarter recorded 83 articles on direct and indirect violations of the rights of the mass media and journalists.

Head of Legal Service of

International Foundation for Protection of

Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz”

Illiodor Kalsin