DON’T READ ALL ABOUT IT
by Jean-Christophe Peuch

Transitions Online
March 6 2008
Czech Republic

Old pros in the CIS are getting more adept at quashing independent
voices. From EurasiaNet.

The ongoing effort by Armenia’s government to dam the free flow of
information during the country’s post-election state of emergency fits
into a distressing pattern concerning press freedom in Commonwealth
of Independent States. Far from thriving, independent media in most
CIS nations are struggling merely to keep operating.

Independent-minded journalists and media often face adversity and
retribution if they strive to fill a traditional watchdog role. In
Azerbaijan, for example, a Baku district court on 18 January sentenced
Avaz Zeynalli, the editor in chief of the Xural newspaper, to 18
months of corrective labor and a hefty fine on charges of defaming
the director of a state-owned publishing house in a series of critical
articles.

A few days later, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
reported that Uzeyir Cafarov, a journalist for Azerbaijan’s Baki
Zaman daily had received numerous death threats from anonymous callers
after he had written critical reports on the army and Defense Ministry.

In Kazakhstan, an Astana court on 14 February ordered the closure
of the Zakon i Pravosudiye weekly, alleging that mistakes had been
made during its registration. Staffers insist the court ruling is
merely a pretext for muzzling an independent newspaper known for its
investigative reports on corruption.

Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme
Situations, says the media environment in most of post-Soviet
countries – including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Central Asia, and Russia –
is "appalling." Panfilov’s Moscow-based media watchdog specializes
in monitoring and protecting the rights of journalists across the CIS.

By contrast, Georgia has expunged its criminal code of repressive
articles traditionally used against journalists. Yet Panfilov says
that even there the situation "is not ideal."

"Many post-Soviet countries are following Russia’s example, as if they
were competing among each other to create the worst possible conditions
for independent journalism," Panfilov told a roundtable discussion in
Vienna last month. The event was organized by the Organizations for
Security and Cooperation in Europe’s representative on media freedom,
Milkos Haraszti.

In Panfilov’s view, independent journalism in Belarus and Uzbekistan
now faces "total disappearance," while in Turkmenistan there are
still no indications that the economic liberalization initiated by
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov will allow for even partially
independent media to emerge.

In Tajikistan, the media remain "economically very weak" and,
therefore, vulnerable to official pressure. According to Panfilov,
President Imomali Rahmon’s administration in Dushanbe "is unwilling
to allow competitors [to] challenge state propaganda."

Media conditions in Kazakhstan, a country where the influx of energy
wealth is helping to create a middle class, have deteriorated in
recent years. Most major media holdings are now either in the hands
of the state, or are controlled by close friends and relatives of
President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Following the fall into disgrace of Nazarbayev’s now former son-in-law
Rakhat Aliyev, the latter’s extensive media holdings – including
the Kazakhstan Today news agency, the Karavan newspaper, and the KTK
television channel – were transferred to the state under the direction
Nazarbayev’s former spokesman Zhanai Omarov.

Kazakh authorities in 2007 temporarily shut down several
opposition-leaning websites for publishing documents pertaining to
the Aliyev-Nazarbayev feud, and the government is now striving to
finalize plans to put domestic Internet content under strict control.

"The government wants to be an active player in Internet technologies
from a content perspective. We must offer [users] content,"
Kazakhstan’s State Computerization and Communications Agency head
Kuanyshbek Yesekeyev said in December.

FINANCIAL PRESSURE

Post-Soviet governments are particularly adept at putting financial
pressure on independent media.

Addressing the OSCE roundtable discussion, Council of Europe Human
Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg mentioned Azerbaijan, where
he said businessmen are being advised to not place advertisements in
newspapers that are critical of authorities.

Another favored weapon of post-Soviet governments is the denial of
frequencies, or the revocation of licenses to independent radio and
television broadcasters – a practice that is common in Azerbaijan
and Tajikistan, among others.

Yet it is physical violence that poses perhaps the greatest threat
to independent journalists.

Alisher Saipov According to the Almaty-based Adil Soz media watchdog,
three independent Kazakh journalists – Yernazar Ibrayev, Tolegen
Kibatov and Ilyas Gafurov – were murdered in 2007 under mysterious
circumstances. Another 10 reporters were physically assaulted and
Zakon i Pravosudiye corruption expert Oralgaisha Zhabagtaikyzy has
been missing for almost a year.

In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbek journalist Alisher Saipov
was gunned down in the southern city of Osh in October 2007, in what
observers believe was a politically motivated act. The Brussels-based
International Crisis Group says it suspects Tashkent of involvement
in the murder. A member of Uzbekistan’s exiled Erk opposition party,
Saipov was the editor in chief of the Siyosat weekly. The Kyrgyz
government suggests the journalist may have been killed because of
his alleged involvement with banned radical Islamic groups and has
stopped investigating the case. CPJ and other international media
watchdogs remain skeptical of the Islamic radical-connection claim,
and demand that the official probe resume.

Whether there is a link between Saipov’s assassination and Uzbekistan’s
23 December presidential ballot is unclear. Yet, as a rule, the number
of attacks on independent and opposition media in the former Soviet
Union tends to increase around elections.

In Georgia, for instance, security forces in November raided the
headquarters of the opposition Imedi TV amid a general crackdown
on opposition protesters, ransacking the premises, and ordering all
staff out of the building.

Panfilov told the OSCE media panel that in Armenia more than 10
journalists were physically assaulted during the months preceding
the 19 February presidential polls. He said similar incidents took
place in Kyrgyzstan prior to the 16 December legislative ballot.

Firdevs Robinson, editor of the BBC World Service’s Central Asia
and Caucasus Service, in turn noted that with presidential elections
approaching in Azerbaijan "there seems to be less and less room for
dissenting voices."

On 28 December, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned five
of eight opposition journalists convicted under criminal charges
described as politically motivated by human rights groups. The three
who remain in jail – Qanimat and Mirza Sakit Zahidov of the Azadliq
daily and Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of Realny Azerbaijan and Gundalik
Azarbaycan – were joined by Bizim Yol daily reporter Musfiq Huseynov,
who was handed a six-year jail sentence on bribery charges in January.

The OSCE’s Haraszti told a 13 December hearing of the U.S. Commission
on Cooperation and Security in Europe that the moratorium on the
criminalization of journalists Aliyev had declared in 2004 seemed
to be no longer in force. In addition, he said "critically-minded
reporters" were now being sentenced for alleged criminal offences
unrelated to their professional activities, such as hooliganism,
or possession of drugs.

Criminalization of journalists – which is also a common practice
in Kazakhstan – can only encourage rampant violence against
representatives of the media and must therefore be banned, Haraszti
said during the OSCE panel discussion.

Jean-Christophe Peuch is a Vienna-based writer who specializes in
the Caucasus and Central Asia. A partner post from EurasiaNet.