From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Jan 26 2005 - 15:29:07 EST
Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations
www.cjes.ru
Weekly bulletin of events in CIS mass media
Issue No. 4 (157), January 17 - 23, 2005
I. Lawsuits against journalists
Azerbaijan
On January 18 the Nasimi district court in Baku handled the civil case
of Elmar Guseinov, editor-in-chief of the opposition magazine Monitor,
for failing to fulfill the ruling of the same court brought in a suit
filed by Gasan Zeinalov, chief of the representative office of
Nakhichevan autonomous area. The court imposed a fine of 110,000 manat
($25) on Guseinov and issued a warning that he would be held criminally
responsible, if he refused to fulfill the court ruling again.
In 2003 Gasan Zeinalov filed the suit against Monitor for publishing an
article under the headline "Godfather."
Kazakhstan
It became known on January 21 that the prosecutor's office of the North
Kazakhstan region at the end of 2004 had invited Grigory Melnikov,
correspondent for the newspaper Vremya, for a conversation and insisted
that he write an explanatory note on an article under the headline "The
head is kept at the regional interior department" published in Vremya on
December 2, 2004.
The article describes the odd investigation of the death of Talgat
Koishibayev, a resident of the region, and the closure of the criminal
case by the prosecutor's office. The death was termed as an accident and
closed allegedly in the absence of corpus delicti. The article claimed
that law enforcers had concealed a murder contrary to the findings of
expert examinations. The article also described the shocking behavior of
the police who suggested that Koishibayev's sister stop complaining to
various authorities and agree with investigators that he had died in an
accident in exchange for getting his head which they had arbitrarily
extracted from the grave.
Melnikov said that Lyudmila Gush of the prosecutor's office had invited
him and told him to list everyone whom he had contacted when he wrote
the article and to state his motives. However, Melnikov refused to give
any written explanations.
Tajikistan
On January 19 hearings ended of a libel suit filed by head of the chair
of judicial law and oversight at Tajik State University Nigmat
Abdullayev at Firdavsi district court in Dushanbe against Nerui Suhan
newspaper. The plaintiff dropped his claims to the editorial office of
the newspaper. Judge Faizullo Nozilov ruled to partly satisfy the claim
and bound Nuriddin Aminov, a freelance correspondent, to pay 50,000
somoni (about $20,000) in damages for writing articles claiming that
Abdullayev had taken a bribe.
II. Other kinds of pressure on editorial boards and journalists.
Conflicts with the administration and political organizations
Armenia
On January 21 the pro-government Stability movement organized a protest
action outside the editorial office of Aravot newspaper demanding that
the paper refute its editorial published in the previous issue.
Protesters said that otherwise editor-in-chief Aram Abramian would have
to leave the country as a traitor.
The Aravot editorial said: "Some observers believe that the claims of US
Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones that the authorities in
Nagorno Karabakh are corrupt and crime-ridden are absolutely untrue
because the criminal and corrupt elements of Karabakh have been staying
in Armenia for a long time."
Protesters were burning the January 20 issues of Aravot and saying that
their action was a protest against the bias of the newspaper, not
against the freedom of speech or democracy.
Abramian said the newspaper had no plans of changing its attitude.
Tajikistan
January 15 saw the resumption of the circulation of the newspaper of the
administration of Muminabad district Subhi Mehnat. It gives broad and
diverse coverage of the administration's activities. However, you won't
find any description of conflicts on its pages, such as the conflict
that broke out at the end of 2004 between the administration and the
district chapter of the Islamic Renaissance Party. Newspaper editor
Nurullo Khasanov said: "We are not allowed to publish such things. The
censorship concerning such materials is strong." He said they were not
allowed to publish even a news item that the party would hold a founding
conference in the district on February 3. Moreover, the administration
chairman "tends to backtrack even on his own statements made at some one
conference or meeting, if the following day he dislikes the way
newspapers report it. Benefiting from the fact that we don't have
dictaphones to record speeches he criticizes us for publishing opinions
he had allegedly not expressed."
III. Restriction of access to information
Azerbaijan/Georgia
On January 20 Ekho newspaper reported that when the Georgian financial
police were conducting an operation to seize smuggled goods from
Azerbaijan they faced stubborn resistance from the owners of the goods
in the village of Vakhtangnisi. People on both sides were hurt in the
clash. The ATV channel bureau in Georgia reported that the police
attacked an ATV and took away the tape-recording of the clash in
Vakhtangnisi. Forty minutes later the police returned the tape but the
recording from it had been erased.
Tajikistan
On January 18 Turko Dikayev, a correspondent for Aziya-Plyus independent
news agency in the Kulyab group of districts, failed to receive
information about the 2004 operations of the Kulyab customs committee.
On January 17 during his first visit to the committee its chief Lt. Col.
Jumahon Rajabov put off the meeting for January 18 without giving any
reasons. When Dikayev arrived at the appointed time the following day he
discovered that the official had left to an unknown destination.
Uzbekistan
On January 18 the Polytechnic Institute in Fergana hosted a meeting of
some 600 members of the regional, city and district councils to elect
representatives to the upper house of parliament.
Some 10 local and foreign media representatives were not permitted to
attend it and were even driven out of the hall by force. They included
political analyst of the Fergana regional broadcasting company Salim
Rustamov and cameraman of the Uzbek national broadcasting company
Shuhrat Mirzakarimov.
BBC radio correspondent Matlyuba Azamatova asked spokesman for the
regional administration responsible for organization the meeting Nosyr
Rahimov to comment on the rudeness to journalists.
The official summoned representatives of Fargona Hikikati newspaper and
Fergana TV and in Azamatova's presence reprimanded them for misinforming
the foreign journalist.
"We have democracy now and we are not creating any obstacles to those
who had want to get information. Still I cannot allow you to enter the
hall where the meeting is held. But you can take an interview when they
will be voting," Rahimov said.
The journalists had nothing else to do but wait. After a while they
realized they had been deceived. When deputies started voting, the
police and security officers cordoned off the scene and again drove away
the journalists who wanted to take interviews.
The BBC correspondent showed her accreditation card to the men driving
journalists away. But a law enforcer pushed her without even checking
looking at the card. When Azamatova offered resistance, even greater
force was used against her and Shahzoda Sadykova, deputy head of the
news service of Fergana TV.
Deputy chief of the administration Ganizhon Rustamov failed to offer a
reasonable reply when the BBC correspondent asked him about the reasons
for such an attitude of law enforcers and local authorities.
Zikrilla Ruzimatov, chief of the Fergana interior department, confessed
to a journalist that he had been given instructions to remove press
representatives from the scene, the BBC correspondent among others.
Georgia/Ukraine/Russia
On January 17 a correspondent for ForUm website was not allowed to enter
the courtroom of the Ukrainian Supreme Court when it was hearing a
protest of presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. He was told that
the hall was too crowded and there were no free seats.
Representatives of Georgian Rustavi-2 and Russian NTV channels were also
refused entry.
|
