Uzbek Tax Cuts Won't Create Free Media

Uzbekistan has announced tax breaks purportedly aimed at developing the country’s media, though critics doubt they will do much to change its reputation as one of the world’s most repressive environments for journalists.

The United States-based watchdog group Freedom House placed Uzbekistan third from the bottom in its 2011 global press freedom rankings, in joint place with Libya, Burma and Eritrea, and just ahead of neighbouring Turkmenistan and North Korea. The Uzbek press and television follow the government line.

Now, however, the Uzbek authorities say they are taking steps to promote independent media by modifying the tax code.

On January 1, a 20 per cent tax on the delivery costs for newspapers, magazines and books was scrapped on the orders of President Islam Karimov.

Publishers are now also shielded for five years from tax on equipment and paper.

The official Uzbekistan Daily said the cuts were designed to “ensure independence of mass media,” and Dilbar Khalikova, a member of the lower house of parliament, told IWPR that the tax breaks would provide the media with further opportunities to “be free”.

“The expansion of tax breaks should encourage media producers to give a platform for a more diverse range of opinions,” Khalikova said.

Several observers, however, said the move would do little to relax the state’s iron grip on the media.

Abdujalil Boymatov, an opposition activist living in Ireland, said journalists have learned to censor themselves, and changes to financial regulations will not change this.

“Uzbek journalists are under pressure from the local secret service. They are afraid of telling the truth and of being critical,” Boymatov said. “How can tax holidays provide the media with independence under such conditions?”

An independent journalist in the capital Tashkent suggested that the cuts were intended to encourage journalists to remain loyal to the state.

“Preferential treatment is a common trick the authorities use to keep journalists tightly under control,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Half of Uzbekistan’s 1,200 print and electronic media outlets are officially registered as privately owned and independently founded.

However, the Uzbek Agency for Communications and Information operates a strict censorship regime, and material needs official approval prior to publication or broadcast.

Reporters Without Borders says Uzbek journalists “are constantly harassed in a variety of ways”, and last year reported that at least 11 media workers were being detained as a consequence of their work.

“Until journalists are really free to express their views, all statements that authorities make will be pointless,” Boymatov said.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.

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