From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Jul 23 2003 - 16:37:18 EDT
Weekly report on events in CIS mass media
Issue no. 29 (79), July 14 - 20, 2003
I. Attacks and Threats against Journalists
Azerbaijan
According to a July 4 media report, employees of the construction firm
Sharur made several phone calls to the office of the editor of the
newspaper Hurriyet and threatened the editor-in-chief with violence. The
journalists said that one of the callers had even promised to "do the
worst thing of what they had seen in movies about 'bad guys.'" The
reason for those threats was the article entitled Avariyny Dom (House in
Need of Repair), which dealt with a shady transaction the firm was
allegedly involved in.
II. Lawsuits against Journalists
Azerbaijan
According to July 14 media reports, several lawsuits have been brought
against the newspaper Eni Musavat. One of these lawsuits was filed by a
group of teachers of Baku School 249. The plaintiffs were infuriated by
one phrase used in the article entitled Now the Teachers Are against Us
too, which was written by Khalida Kyazymly. The article dealt with the
increase of wages to teachers before the presidential elections. The
author of the article believes that the sole purpose of this increase is
to get the teachers' votes in the elections. The teachers feel that the
newspaper's position tarnished their honor and dignity and are seeking
to recover 25 million manates from the paper's editor and another 25,000
million manates from the journalist.
Dzhalal Aliyev, the brother of the Azerbaijani president, filed a
lawsuit against the paper on July 8 over three articles published on May
11, June 21, and June 29. The articles dealt with the possible
presidential candidates in the light of the poor health of incumbent
president Heydar Aliyev.
On July, the Azersun-Holding group filed a lawsuit against the
newspaper. The holding has asked the court to open a criminal case
against the paper's editor-in-chief Rauf Arifoglu.
Kazakhstan
Two unknown men entered the office of the editor of the Aktyubinsk
independent newspaper ARBA on July 15. The men introduced themselves as
representatives of a private security firm and asked the paper's
editor-in-chief for a meeting with journalists Olga Petrova and Akmaral
Maikuzova. Because they refused to give a reason for this meeting, the
editor refused to arrange it. Several minutes later, the men returned
and showed to the editor identification documents stating that they were
officials with the National Security Committee. Then they demanded that
the editor write an explanation regarding a news item the two
journalists had written. The news report was devoted to the preparedness
of the local law enforcement agencies for emergency situations. While
preparing this news report, one of the journalists dressed as a suicide
bomber and visited several state establishments, asking policemen and
officials provocative questions about the security systems in the
buildings. The other woman worked with a hidden camera. The press
services of the defense and security agencies, including the local
office of the National Security Committee, were informed of the
experiment beforehand. Before the news report was released, Igor
Fadeyev, the head of the terrorism prevention department of the National
Security Committee, said the following to the journalists: "Inform the
police of such experiments. It's their headache." When the ARBA
editor-in-chief called him to find out why the law enforcement officials
were asking for an explanation, he said: "We will find out what it was,
an experiment or provocation. Maybe you are preaching Wahhabi ideas."
Uzbekistan
Three representatives of the Kashkadarya regional bailiff's office came
to the apartment of independent journalist Olim Tashev on July 17. The
purpose of this visit was to fulfill the ruling of the Kasan regional
court. On May 23, the court sentenced Tashev to two years of community
service and ordered him to pay 20% of his salary to the state. The court
also ordered Tashev to pay over 300,000 soms ($300) in compensation to
Manzura Khidirova, his neighbor, whom the court found him guilty of
injuring during an argument. The bailiffs told the journalist that they
were authorized to sell his apartment to generate money for the
compensation payment. Under the Uzbek legislation, residential space
cannot be confiscated and sold to generate money compensation payments
ordered by court.
***
The Andizhan City Court on July 16 heard an administrative case against
Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov, chairman of the Andizhan department of the
Uzbek Human Rights Society. The lawsuit was filed over the article
entitled Law on the Officials' Side, which he had distributed over the
Internet. The court sent the case to the Andizhan prosecutor's office
and ordered that slander charges be brought against Zainabitdinov.
Zainabitdinov believes this decision is a revenge for his human rights
activities.
III. Other Forms of Pressure on Editorial Boards and Journalists.
Conflicts with the Authorities and Political Organizations
Azerbaijan
On July 14, officials from the Organized Crime Prevention Department
conducted a search in a private printing house without a search warrant.
Elchin Rashidzade, an investigator, told the staff of the printing house
that the reason for the search was that that the law enforcement
agencies had received information that the firm had carried out an
illegal order. The law enforcement did not find anything illegal, but
confiscated equipment and the entire edition of the magazine Eni Musavat
(No. 2), which was ready to be printed. The printing house remains
sealed.
Armenia
The National Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Armenia on
July 18 announced the results of five tenders for broadcasting licenses.
The opposition company A1+ took part in three of the five tenders and
lost all of them. Another opposition television company, Noyan Tapan
(Noah's Arc), also lost the tender to a company re-transmitting CNN
programs. Shamiram Agabekyan, deputy chairman of the National Television
and Radio Broadcasting Company, said that the bid submitted by A1+ did
not have a proper financial and technical substantiation and had failed
to convince her that the company would be able to buy a new transmitter,
replace the old equipment and pay its staff wages for the next seven
years for which the license was issued.
In April 2002, NKTR took the channels A1+ and Noyan Tapan off the air
and they still have not been able to resume broadcasting. Many
international organizations, which believe that Robert Kochairan is
trying to silence television channels that are not loyal to him by
manipulating some members of NKTR whom he himself appointed, have tried
to protect these channels.
Uzbekistan
The staff of the newspaper Mokhiyat filed their resignation on July 15.
The reason for that was that Saidulla Khakim, the new director of the
National Information Agency Turkiston-press and founder of the
newspaper, began to take acute and critical materials off the air. The
director, who previously headed the information department of the
presidential administration, headed the paper in June. According to the
Mokhiyat journalists, Saidulla assumed the role of a censor from the
very beginning and was preventing pressing materials from going on the
air.
IV. Restriction of Access to Information
Georgia
The government of Georgia is discussing a draft sequester of the state
budget, a July 16 media report says. The state structures whose spending
is due to be reduced include the state television, whose funding will be
reduced by $1 million. Such a radical reduction of funding will enable
the state television to broadcast to some regions of Georgia located
high in the mountains.
Commentary Prepared by Viktoria Blonskaya, Lawyer with the Center for
Journalism in Extreme Situations
(IV Uzbekistan) The constitutions and national legislations of most CIS
countries prohibit censorship of the mass media.
For example, Article 67 of the Constitution of Uzbekistan says: "The
mass media are free and operate in accordance with the law. They bear
responsibility for the authenticity of the information they provide.
Censorship is prohibited."
Article 4 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan On the Mass Media
says: "Censorship of the mass media is prohibited in the Republic of
Uzbekistan. No one has the right to demand preliminary coordination of
the information or materials to be published, and also demand that the
text be changed or fully take off the air (or out of the print)."
In this case, the question arises whether the actions of the
administration can be called censorship. As we know, censorship is a
system of administrative inspections of material carried out by a state
body prior to its release. However, given the aforementioned legislative
acts, we believe that this situation can be considered to be a
manifestation of internal censorship.
According to information possessed by the Center for Journalism in
Extreme Situations, this is not the first case of such censorship of the
mass media in Uzbekistan to take place recently. We would like to stress
once again that these actions contradict not only the national
legislation on the mass media, but also the country's main legislative
act, the Constitution.
We believe that in such a situation the newspaper staff should
not resign, but should seek protection in court.
It should also be noted that in each particular case there needs to be a
clear legal analysis of the situation. We would like to repeat that the
journalists should not resign. They may find a solution to this problem
by discussing the matter with the authorities.
Type of Event Number of Cases
Attacks on journalists 1 - Azerbaijan
Journalists killed 1 - Ukraine
Detentions and arrests of journalists
Legal and judicial persecution of journalists 3 - Azerbaijan
1 - Kazakhstan
1 - Kyrgyzstan
2 - Uzbekistan
1 - Ukraine
Other kinds of pressure on editorial boards and journalists. Conflicts
with the administration and political organizations 1 - Azerbaijan
1 - Armenia
3 - Belarus
1 - Uzbekistan
3 - Ukraine
Restriction of access to information 1 - Belarus
1 - Georgia
Missing journalists
Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations
4 Zubovsky Boulevard, Moscow 119021, Russia
phone: (+ 7 095) 201-7626; 201-3550 comm. 124
fax: (+ 7 095) 201-7626
e-mail: center@cjes.ru
Web site: www.cjes.ru
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