OSCE expresses concern over intimidation of Uzbek reporters

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan: An international security and democracy group expressed concern Tuesday about the intimidation and harassment of independent journalists in Uzbekistan.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called for the immediate release of reporters imprisoned for criticizing the government.

“These assaults on free reporting are especially regrettable as Uzbek authorities told me during my visit last week that they were ready to start the much-needed reforms of the media governance in the country,” Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE’s representative on media freedoms, said in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction from the Uzbek government.

The most recent independent journalist to be imprisoned was Solidzhon Abdurakhmonov, who was arrested days before Haraszti’s visit on drug charges that rights activists say were trumped-up.

Surat Ikramov, who heads a group of human rights activists in the Central Asian nation, called the arrest “ridiculous.”

“It was just done to give the authorities an excuse to open a criminal investigation against him,” he said.

Many journalists working for international media outlets have also routinely been refused official accreditation and regularly face threats.

Uzbekistan earlier this month hosted an international conference on media freedom. A number of rights groups, including Humans Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, condemned the seminar as a “farce.”

Uzbek state media has repeatedly broadcast a documentary accusing local journalists working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty of organizing subversive activities since the conference, the OSCE said in its statement.

Nonprofit organization Freedom House ranks Uzbekistan as one of the world’s worst countries for press freedom.

Authoritarian President Islam Karimov has ruled resource-rich Uzbekistan since before the 1991 Soviet collapse. He fell out of favor with the United States and other Western countries after the government’s violent suppression of an uprising in the city of Andijan in 2005.

Karimov has recently sought to mend ties with the West, in part by making commitments to improve his country’s human rights record.

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