edited by Alastair Carthew and Simon Winkelmann
Uzbekistan’s government came under strong criticism in the first half of 2011 for its treatment of the media, including preventing a Voice of America stringer from leaving the country, the gradual expulsion of foreign media since 2005 and jailing journalists.According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a January report, six journalists were in jail in 2011 on prison terms varying from seven to 15 years. One journalist is the President Islam Karimov’s own nephew, held in a psychiatric hospital for more than four years because of his critical reporting.
CPJ also reported what it called a “disturbing trend” of the State using “experts “from the State Agency for Press and Information to help indict independent voices by providing testimony that helped convict three reporters and imprison one civic activist on charges of demotion and insult.”
CPJ also claimed that Uzbek security services intimidated reporters by inviting them for “informal talks” at their offices.
The case of Abdumalik Boboyev, a stringer for the US based Voice of America was also criticised. Boboyev was prevented from leaving Uzbekistan to travel to Germany because he had previously been prosecuted on defamation charges, according to the independent news website Uznews.
Internally, the United Nations Development Programme organised training for members of parliament and journalists on “Key issues of Parliamentary Journalism” in March, under its “Parliamentary Development Assistance” project. More than 40 MPs and 30 mass media representatives took part.
Ubzbekistan was on Reporters Without Borders’ “enemies of the Internet list” at the start of the year. Many website are banned, both local and Russian as well as International ones like BBC.com and Aljazeera.net. Cyber censorship includes social networks, blogging platforms, mail services and others, but circumventing this censorship is also widespread through use of browser proxies.
In March, 2011 Uzbekistan had 7.5 million Internet users, a 26% penetration rate; and 69,000 Facebook users, an 0.2% penetration rate.
Uzbekistan is 163rd on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index 2010.