Compelling Reading in Uzbekistan
Compelling Reading in Uzbekistan
When it comes to buying government-run newspapers in Uzbekistan, readers find it hard to resist taking out a subscription. Not because the content makes gripping reading, but because the authorities force institutions and private individuals alike to buy the state papers.
As a subscription campaign for next year gets under way, readers have more than 400 newspapers and magazines to choose from. But people complain they are forced to take out subscriptions to publications that the government considers required reading.
These include Narodnoe Slovo (in Russian) and its Uzbek-language sister paper Khalq Sozi, Ozbekiston Ovozi and Khabar, which carry official news, announcements and speeches by the president, plus the relevant local newspapers, and periodicals issued by various government agencies.
An official with the Jizak provincial administration, for example, explained how the system of compulsory subscriptions, which has been going on for years, is implemented by local government. Instructions are issued from Tashkent about which newspapers, and how many of each, are to be purchased by state institutions, private firms, public servants, students and other residents. The local government then issues a directive to be acted on by police, prosecutors, tax officers and banks, which in turn “compile more detailed instructions which go to the heads of enterprises, businesses and farms”, he said.
Muhlisa, a resident of Namangan region in eastern Uzbekistan, says it is easy for these agencies to pressure reluctant subscribers.
“If firms or individual businessmen don’t comply, the taxmen will reject the next tax return they submit,” she explained. “Prosecutors can arrange all sorts of nasty surprises for anyone who refuses to subscribe. And the banks can simply decline to issue cash until the client has paid for a subscription.”
Bahrom, himself a bank employee in the capital, complains at having to fork out money for subscriptions.
“They made me take out an annual subscription to Khalq Sozi, and withheld close to 55 [US] dollars from my salary,” he said. “That’s a third of my [monthly] wage, and I have to feed a family of four on the remaining 110 dollars.”
A student at Tashkent’s IT university recalled the explanation he was given when he and his peers were instructed to subscribe to the Khabar newspaper, “They told us we have to support it as it doesn’t have any money. But why should we be the ones who have to support it? We’ve never read it in the past.”
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
As a subscription campaign for next year gets under way, readers have more than 400 newspapers and magazines to choose from. But people complain they are forced to take out subscriptions to publications that the government considers required reading.
These include Narodnoe Slovo (in Russian) and its Uzbek-language sister paper Khalq Sozi, Ozbekiston Ovozi and Khabar, which carry official news, announcements and speeches by the president, plus the relevant local newspapers, and periodicals issued by various government agencies.
An official with the Jizak provincial administration, for example, explained how the system of compulsory subscriptions, which has been going on for years, is implemented by local government. Instructions are issued from Tashkent about which newspapers, and how many of each, are to be purchased by state institutions, private firms, public servants, students and other residents. The local government then issues a directive to be acted on by police, prosecutors, tax officers and banks, which in turn “compile more detailed instructions which go to the heads of enterprises, businesses and farms”, he said.
Muhlisa, a resident of Namangan region in eastern Uzbekistan, says it is easy for these agencies to pressure reluctant subscribers.
“If firms or individual businessmen don’t comply, the taxmen will reject the next tax return they submit,” she explained. “Prosecutors can arrange all sorts of nasty surprises for anyone who refuses to subscribe. And the banks can simply decline to issue cash until the client has paid for a subscription.”
Bahrom, himself a bank employee in the capital, complains at having to fork out money for subscriptions.
“They made me take out an annual subscription to Khalq Sozi, and withheld close to 55 [US] dollars from my salary,” he said. “That’s a third of my [monthly] wage, and I have to feed a family of four on the remaining 110 dollars.”
A student at Tashkent’s IT university recalled the explanation he was given when he and his peers were instructed to subscribe to the Khabar newspaper, “They told us we have to support it as it doesn’t have any money. But why should we be the ones who have to support it? We’ve never read it in the past.”
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
