Funferal

IFEX on Uzbekistan and the press

Via IFEX:

As reports trickle in about the indiscriminate killing last weekend of hundreds of protesters in Uzbekistan’s northeastern city of Andijan, IFEX members say authorities are maintaining an information blockade by expelling journalists from the town and obstructing foreign television news broadcasts.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports several incidents in which foreign journalists have been harassed by authorities. On 14 May 2005, crews from Russia’s Ren TV and NTV were briefly detained as they tried to enter Andijan. Police barred them from reporting in the city and ordered them to leave. Correspondents for Reuters and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) were briefly detained by police on 13 May and left Andijan the next day, fearing retaliation by Uzbek security services.
As of 16 May, foreign television channels, including BBC and CNN, remained inaccessible in Uzbekistan, and Russian television stations were unable to transmit news programmes into the country. Uzbek state television has broadcast only brief official statements about the situation, without video footage. Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) says no journalist has been able to report from Andijan since 14 May.
Freedom House has called on Uzbek authorities to allow international media, UN officials and human rights monitors into Andijan to verify reports that hundreds of people were shot and killed by security forces on 13 May 2005. The government has denied that security forces killed civilians.
At least 10,000 people had gathered in the city’s main square on 13 May to demand freedom, justice, and an end to the economic hardship felt by many in the country, reports Human Rights Watch. The demonstration was reportedly sparked by smaller protests against the imprisonment of 23 businessmen who are on trial for belonging to an Islamic religious group. Those protests escalated when several armed men broke into the local prison and freed 2,000 inmates, including the businessmen.
Human Rights Watch says some of the businessmen are apparently linked to Akramia, an Islamic group named after Akram Yuldashev, a religious leader who was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment in 1999 on charges of anti-constitutional activity. Akramia instructs its followers to live according to Muslim principles and to donate some of their income to help needy Muslim families. Hundreds of families in Andijan rely on businesses owned by the 23 defendants for employment.
The Uzbek government severely limits avenues for civic participation and the peaceful expression of dissent, says Human Rights Watch. There are no independent media, the government has refused to register opposition political parties and there are tight restrictions on civil society groups and non-governmental organizations.