From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Dec 18 2002 - 16:22:50 EST
Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations
Weekly report of events in the mass media of CIS states
Issue no. 48, December 9 - 15, 2002
I. Attacks and Threats
Azerbaijan
Three unidentified assailants attacked Azer Aikhan, the brother of Yeni
Musavat newspaper editor-in-chief, and tried to drag him into an unlit
entranceway of a house near his home on December 12. The man's colleague
who resides nearby heard his cries and rushed to rescue. The assailants
threw Aikhan on the ground and made away. Lawyers say that the attack
was planned and a polyethylene bag that the assailants left on the scene
suggests that this was an attack on ones' life. The paper's
editor-in-chief Rauf Arifoglu said that the editorial office and the
personnel have been receiving threats since the paper started publishing
reports critical of Azersun Holding's activities. He sent a letter to
Interior Minister Ramil Usubov describing the details of the attack and
asking for protection of the paper and its staff but no response has
been forthcoming.
II. Judicial and Legal Persecution
Azerbaijan
Baku's Sabail District Court on December 9 ruled in favor of the
district administration head Hyulhussein Akhmedov who had filed a case
against Yeni Musavat newspaper. The court ordered the paper to pay a
fine of 3 million manats and refute a report critical of Akhmedov.
***
The same court continued consideration of another case against Yeni
Musavat in which its staff members Dzahbir Turan and Elshad Pashasoi
were also defendants. Deputy Defense Minister Mamed Beibullayev demands
that the paper refute its reports Cadets Fall Victim of 1998 Elections
and Parents Want to Hear Commander-in-Chief's Reponse and pay him 300
million manats as moral damages.
***
The same court held on December 10 a preliminary session in the case of
Azersun Holding against Yeni Musavat and the authors of reports about
the company's activities. The suit crudely violates the requirements of
the Ciivil Proceedings Code and so cannot be acceptable in court, the
paper's defense attorney said. The judge decided to hold another
preliminary session at a later date.
Uzbekistan
The Fergana Interior Headquarters was reported on December 10 to have
placed independent journalist , human rights activist and editor on an
unregistered women's human rights club Ut Yuraklar (Hot Hearts) Mutabar
Tadjibayeva on the wanted list for having failed to report to the
Altyaryk District Court that was to consider a case of "disturbance of
public order." The alleged disturbance amounted to having initiated
picketing the court building of which she had notified the associated
authorities. In effect, her action cannot be regarded as an offense.
Rustam Abdullayev, head of the Public Order Division in the Regional
Interior Headquarters, served the summons. He warned Tadjibayeva that
the police would bring her to court by force if she did not appear
there. The day before, on December 5, she received a letter from the
Fergana regional prosecution service that she had to dissolve her club
for fear of facing charges of setting up an illegal organization. The
true cause of opening a case against Tadjibayeva and the pressure
brought to bear on her by law enforcement agencies is her intention to
picket outside the parliament building in Tashkent, human rights
activists believe. The police are also looking for Tadjibayeva's
daughter Mahliyo whose whereabouts are also unknown. The police searched
houses in the village of Durmen on the presumption that the villagers
whose rights she had defended may have hidden Tadjibayeva.
Kyrgyzstan
Ten court suits have been filed in Bishkek's Leninsky District Court
nearly simultaneously against Moya Stolitsa newspaper. As a consequence
of this concerted action staged by the authorities, the independent
daily is on the verge of closure, Rina Prizhivoit, editor of the paper's
political department, said on December 10. The paper has already lost a
case filed against it by Merliside, a U.S. company acting on behalf of
Adil Tolgonbayev, the president's son-in-law. The court had told the
paper to pay the plaintiff $50,000 and the author of an offending
article, $2,000. The paper has been closed twice in two recent years.
Bureacrats do not bother to hide their dislike of it. State Secretary
Osmonkul Ibragimov has accused the paper of spreating lies and promoting
separatism and called for immediate closure of Moya Stolitsa.
Azerbaijan
Members of the Association of Reserve Officers picketed Yeni
Musavat newspaper's editorial office on December 8. The pickets holding
posters with slogans Everything for the Motherland, Motherland Above
All, Reports of Army Not a Tool in Political Struggle, and Yeni
Musavat, Stop Smearing Azerbaijani Army first tried to invade the office
but then made do with reading a statement saying that unless the paper
ends publication of reports poking dirt on the army, "other measures"
will be taken against it. The paper's personnel are sure that the
picketing was organized by the Defense Ministry which often comes under
the Yeni Musavat's criticism
Kazakhstan
Head of the West Kazakhstan regional branch of the Kazakh International
Human Rights and Law Observance Bureau Dyrdina and numerous regional and
Uralsk city legislature members on December 12 sent a letter to the city
legislature secretary saying that the National Security Committed had
compiled a list of 37 legislators, editors of independent media outlets
and political party leaders who had attracted the committee's attention.
This list had been sent to cashiers of the Uralsk railroad station for
them to notify the committee about the destination of the people in the
list traveling from the station. This action as illegal, the letter
says.
IV. Restricting Access to Information
Georgia
Officers in a police station of Tbilisi's Saburtali district took away a
camera from and manhandled Kavkasia TV channel's crew that tried to film
the detention of a group of Chechens residing in Georgia. When they gave
it back, the camera was damages and the cassette had been removed from
it.
Kazakhstan
Reports were made public on December 9 that the Internet site of Vesti
Pavlodara newspaper had been blocked. Critical reports had been posted
on it about certain highly placed city officials, in particular Pavlodar
region Goernor Daniyal Akhmetov
***
National Security Committee's Lt. Col. Suchkov seized 1,000 copies of
<Assandi-Times> newspaper in Pavlodar airport on December 8. Murat
Tulindinov, coordinator for public relations of Kazakhstan's Democratic
Choice city branch, found this when he arrived in the airport to pick up
the copies. On the same day a police officer seized copies of the paper
in a minibus en route from Taraz to Zhanatas where the local branch of
Kazakhstan's Democratic Choice was to receive them.
V. Initiatives by Authorities and NGOs
Kazakhstan
President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed on December 19 a decree
setting up a Public Council on Mass Media (Information Policy) that will
report to him. The idea of setting up this kind of committee had been
put forward at the First Congress of Kazakhstan's journalists in March
2002. The goal is to involve the public in the formation of the state's
information policy. The committee will advise the president on improving
legislation on mass media and protection of the interests and rights of
mass media and media workers. Well-known journalists and managers of
independent, in particular regional, media outlets will sit on the
council. Union of Kazakhstans' Journalists Chairman Seitkazy Matayev
will chair the council.
Comment by Viktoriya Blonskaya, the Center for Journalism in Extreme
Situations' apprentice legal adviser
(III, Kyrgyzstan) Article 36 of the Kyrgyz Constitution declares
freedom of mass media. Nevertheless, independent media outlets are not
necessarily free, as the case of Moya Stolitsa newspaper suggests. A
court suit against the paper culminated in an unreasonable fine that is
most likely to bankrupt it. Somebody in high places has devised a sure
way to eliminate unpleasant media outlets.
Once again, the court practice proved to be inconsistent with the
country's legislation and international standards, in particular the
country's Constitution, the Mass Media Law and Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that everyone will
enjoy the freedom of convictions and the right to express them freely
and the freedom of looking for, obtaining and disseminating information
and ideas using any tools and across state borders.
Event
Quantity
Attacks on journalists Job-unrelated
Job-related 1 - Azerbaijan
1 - Ukraine
Journalists
Killed Job-unrelated
Job-related
Journalists detained and arrested
Legal and judicial persecution 3 - Azerbaijan
2 - Belarus
1 - Kazakhstan
1 - Kyrgyzstan
1 - Uzbekistan
Other kinds of harassing editorial boards and journalists 2-
Azerbaijan
2 - Belarus
1 - Kazakhstan
1 - Ukraine
1 - Ukraine/Crimea
Restriction of access to information 1 -Belarus
2 - Moldova
3 - Kazakhstan
1 - Ukraine
Initiatives of authorities and NGOs 1 - Ukraine
Disappeared journalists
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