President's Press Freedom Pledge Rings Hollow
President's Press Freedom Pledge Rings Hollow
President Islam Karimov has called for freedom of speech in Uzbekistan to be safeguarded - a statement local journalists say highlights the problem but will lead to no improvement.
In a speech on national Press and Media Workers’ Day on June 27, Karimov called for opportunities to be created for “for freedom of speech, a plurality of opinions, the open expression of ideas and views”, and called for “all obstacles to this to be removed”.
According to a 2007 report by the New York Committee to Protect Journalists, Uzbekistan is among the five worst countries when it comes to driving journalists into exile. There are currently 16 journalists from the country who live abroad because their life and liberty would be under threat in Uzbekistan.
Local journalists and observers say Karimov is merely mouthing well-rehearsed clichés, which commit him to nothing.
“The president comes out with a similar line every year, but the situation doesn’t change. This is no more than playing to the gallery,” said independent journalist Abdulmuhsiy Abdulfattah.
Journalist Kazim Rustamov says statements of this kind are at least sign that the president recognises to some extent that there is no freedom of speech. However, that does not mean there are going to be any radical changes.
“What the president is calling for is precisely the thing that is forbidden and impossible. We have our own [government-imposed] criteria for freedom of speech and thought,” he said.
Another Uzbek journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, says that the press are cynical about Karimov’s gesture. Anyone who takes the president at his word is in for a bitter disappointment, he said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
In a speech on national Press and Media Workers’ Day on June 27, Karimov called for opportunities to be created for “for freedom of speech, a plurality of opinions, the open expression of ideas and views”, and called for “all obstacles to this to be removed”.
According to a 2007 report by the New York Committee to Protect Journalists, Uzbekistan is among the five worst countries when it comes to driving journalists into exile. There are currently 16 journalists from the country who live abroad because their life and liberty would be under threat in Uzbekistan.
Local journalists and observers say Karimov is merely mouthing well-rehearsed clichés, which commit him to nothing.
“The president comes out with a similar line every year, but the situation doesn’t change. This is no more than playing to the gallery,” said independent journalist Abdulmuhsiy Abdulfattah.
Journalist Kazim Rustamov says statements of this kind are at least sign that the president recognises to some extent that there is no freedom of speech. However, that does not mean there are going to be any radical changes.
“What the president is calling for is precisely the thing that is forbidden and impossible. We have our own [government-imposed] criteria for freedom of speech and thought,” he said.
Another Uzbek journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, says that the press are cynical about Karimov’s gesture. Anyone who takes the president at his word is in for a bitter disappointment, he said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
