Rahmon’s bid to centralize control includes efforts to silence political opponents, human rights activists, and independent voices. More than a decade ago, Tajikistan’s media environment was relatively diverse and allowed for some criticism and debate, as long as local media avoided reporting on the president and his extensive family. Now, Tajikistan’s media are in their worst state since the violent years of the civil war, journalists told a Committee to Protect Journalists’ representative during a visit to the country late last year and through messaging apps.

Seven journalists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in retaliation for their work in 2022 and 2023. The United Nations Human Rights Council has criticized “the apparent use of anti-terrorism legislation to silence critical voices” and expressed concern about reports alleging that torture was used to obtain false confessions from prisoners.

In one telling sign of the climate of fear that prevails in Tajikistan, only two among the more than a dozen journalists, press freedom advocates, and experts that CPJ met with were willing to speak on the record.

Some key takeaways from CPJ’s visit:

‘The collapse of independent Tajik journalism’

Prior to 2022, Tajikistan rarely jailed journalists. “For the president [Rahmon], it was important to be able to say we don’t touch journalists,” one local journalist told CPJ.

That changed with the unprecedentedly harsh sentences meted out to the seven convicted in 2022 and 2023 on what are widely seen as charges in retaliation for their work. Four journalists – Abdullo Ghurbati, Zavqibek Saidamini, Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda, and Khurshed Fozilov – received sentences of seven or seven-and-a-half years, Khushom Gulyam eight years, Daler Imomali, 10 years, and Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, 20 years – a development seen by many as a deeply chilling escalation in the years-long constriction of independent media.

For Abdumalik Kadirov, head of the independent trade group Media Alliance of Tajikistan, 2022 marked “the collapse of independent Tajik journalism.”

Interviewees told CPJ that only two significant independent media voices now remain in Tajikistan: privately owned news agency Asia-Plus and U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s local service, the Czech Republic-headquartered Radio Ozodi.  

Both regularly face harassment and threats. Their websites have long been subjected to partial shutdowns by local internet service providers – the result of behind-the-scenes orders from state officials, according to local journalists, so that authorities can deny responsibility for the outages.

Asia-Plus has been forced to moderate its content, reducing its political coverage, following a May 2022 threat from authorities to shutter its operations.

A handful of other outlets either avoid political topics entirely, struggle to maintain independence in the face of government repression, or barely function due to lack of funding, multiple sources said. Adding to challenges for journalists are less visible forms of pressure, such as threats of tax fines and surveillance of their work.

“Everything is done indirectly,” one journalist said. “[The authorities] have many levers. They can make it known to a [financially] struggling outlet that it will be hit with huge tax fines, or its management will face criminal charges, and it’s advisable just to lay things down.” Several interviewees said that each media outlet has a “curator” from law enforcement agencies as a reminder that it is being watched, and authorities can threaten rigged tax or other inspections, or even order advertisers to pull their ads.

Particularly since authorities banned the country’s main opposition party in 2015, key independent media have been forced into closure and “dozens” of journalists have chosen exile. A government decree enacted shortly after this requires media outlets to pass an inspection by state security services prior to registration, the head of the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (NANSMIT) Nuriddin Karshiboev told CPJ, with “virtually no new independent media” on the national level being registered since.

Rising fear and self-censorship

The year 2022 had a “devastating” effect on Tajikistan’s already embattled independent media, one journalist said. Several interviewees linked the crackdown on journalists to the authorities’ brutal suppression of protests in the eastern Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in May-June 2022. Immediately after those protests erupted, authorities arrested 66-year-old journalist and human rights defender Mamadshoeva on charges of organizing the unrest, airing what many believe to be a forced confession days later on state TV.

Four journalists with RFE/RL and its project Current Time TV were attacked after interviewing Mamadshoeva immediately before her arrest, and authorities’ shuttering threat against Asia-Plus was issued over its coverage of events in Gorno-Badakhshan. While most of the other jailed journalists did not cover Gorno-Badakhshan, analysts told CPJ their arrests were in part calculated to have a chilling effect on the press amid the crackdown in that region.

Above all, interviewees said, 2022 entrenched a climate of fear and exacerbated already high levels of self-censorship among journalists. “We don’t know who might be next,” one journalist said. “2022 silenced all of us, not just those who were arrested,” said another. “Journalists fear saying anything.”

Several journalists told CPJ they themselves self-censored more following the events of 2022, which had left increasing uncertainty over “red lines,” the topics that are off limits. “Before it was easier as the red lines were clearer – the president and his family, top state officials, and after 2015, coverage of exiled opposition leaders,” one analyst said. “Now, it’s unpredictable – what you might consider neutral, [the authorities] might not. This unpredictability is the most problematic thing for journalism.”

Others agreed with what Kadirov described as a “dramatic fall” in the number of critical articles and an increasing tendency for local media to avoid domestic politics in favor of “safe” topics such as culture, sport, and some international news.

The convictions of five of the seven jailed journalists in 2022-23 on charges of “participation” in banned political groups allowed authorities to successfully portray independent journalists as “extremists,” several interviewees said. “Society falls for this,” one journalist said, “and members of the public often do not want to speak to journalists, and experts are increasingly wary of doing so.”

The events of 2022 also deepened the sense of alienation between independent journalists and authorities and the public. Where 10 to 15 years ago authorities were forced to reckon with independent media as “a real public watchdog,” noted one analyst, officials now engage less and less with the media, rejecting or ignoring their information requests. Access to information remains “an urgent problem of Tajik journalism,” according to Karshiboev, despite some recent encouraging discussions between authorities and media organizations on how to address the issue.

Decline in international donors

“Tajik media’s biggest problem is finances,” Karshiboev told CPJ. Lacking domestic sources of funding amid a limited advertising market, Tajikistan’s independent media have for years been reliant on international donors, interviewees said. Yet in recent years donor support has significantly declined, particularly since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. “All Western resources and attention go to Ukraine,” one analyst lamented. Others cited a longer-term “donor fatigue” – donor organizations have lost interest in Tajikistan in particular and Central Asia more widely “because they don’t see any improvement,” one journalist said. A particular blow was the withdrawal of the Soros Foundation, previously a major media donor, from Tajikistan at the end of 2022.

Others argued that the problem was not so much a decline in donor funding as its misdirection – away from critical media and much-needed measures for media defense and toward projects of questionable value. Among other reasons, several argued that the ultimate problem is that international donors know the media is a sore spot for the Tajik government and, as Karshiboev put it, “fear damaging relations if they provide real and effective support to journalism.”

Interviewees said donors may also feel constrained by the West’s limited ability to influence on human rights issues in a country with such strong ties to Russia and China. “The Tajik government has increasingly learnt that it can act badly without any major consequences,” one analyst emphasized to CPJ. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated that dynamic.

“Before, when there wasn’t this standoff between Russia and the West, Tajikistan still looked to the West,” one journalist said. “Now they think: ‘What can the West do’?”  

A bleak outlook

Despite memories of a freer media environment only a generation ago, few of the journalists who spoke to CPJ were optimistic about the prospects for Tajik journalism in the near or mid-term future.

Many noted that Tajik journalists have become “demoralized” following 2022, that there’s been an uptick in journalists fleeing the country or leaving the profession, and that young people are reluctant to choose journalism as a career.

A marginalized independent media sector is very convenient for the government, said one analyst, “so it is unlikely to get better.” External support, in the form of more pressure and better targeted funding from Western and international donors and governments, was one of few factors capable of pushing developments in a more positive direction, several interviewees said. Kadirov and others believe that authorities’ tight control over traditional media outlets will cause independent journalists to turn more to social media and blogging to publish their reporting, making authorities likely to seek to exert even more control over those forums too.

“I see my mission as maintaining independent journalism – I can’t say in a good condition – but maintaining it at least to wait for better days,” said Kadirov.

CPJ emailed the Presidential Administration and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan for comment, but did not receive any replies.

Source: CPJ

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Legislation under debate stipulates share of state language on television and radio should grow to 70%

Kazakhstan has announced efforts to promote the use of the Kazakh language over Russian in its media, amid growing scepticism over Moscow’s influence in the country since the invasion of Ukraine.

Kazakh is the official language of the former Soviet republic in central Asia, but Russian is recognised too and is widely spoken among the tightly controlled country’s population of about 20 million.

“The draft law on the media stipulates an increase in the share of the state language in television and radio from 50% to 70%,” the culture minister, Aida Balayeva, told reporters in the capital, Astana.

The legislation is being debated by lawmakers but is likely to be approved by parliament, which is seen as loyal to the president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

“This transition will take place at a rate of 5% per year from 2025 onwards,” Balayeva said, referring to government plans to promote the Kazakh language since the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago.

Kazakhstan, where ethnic Russians comprise about 15% of the population, shares a long border with Russia and retains close political, economic and military ties with Moscow. It has sought to strengthen ties with western countries and China since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where Russian is a recognised language, passed similar legislation earlier this year. The law requires civil servants in the former Soviet country to be fluent in Kyrgyz, and for the media to produce 60% of content in the local language.

In Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – other ex-Soviet countries in central Asia – Russian has no official status but is used by residents and officials.

Source: The Guardian

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ASTANA – The Astana Times has picked a selection of articles on Kazakhstan published in international media across the world. This week’s foreign media digest includes articles on Kazakh-European Union cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative, Kazakh athletes’ victories at the Asian Games, and more.

Here is why the EU should deepen its relations with Central Asia

Euronews published an opinion article on Oct. 5 by  Emil Avdaliani, Professor at European University in Tbilisi, about economic and diplomatic benefits for the European Union (EU) in advancing regional and economic ties with Central Asian countries.

The article points out that there are numerous advantages to Europe deepening its ties with Central Asia. Firstly, as European countries aim to address energy security challenges, especially their reliance on Russian energy, the diversification of energy sources becomes crucial.

Strengthening ties with Kazakhstan, the largest of the Central Asian states both geographically and economically, can offer a solution to Europe’s energy concerns, the author suggests. 

Kazakhstan, blessed with abundant oil and mineral reserves, already supplies oil to the German market through the Druzhba pipeline, which starts in Russia and stretches to multiple European destinations, the article notes.

Kazakhstan wins men’s road race of cycling road at 19th Asian Games

Kazakhstan’s cyclists  Yevgeniy Fedorov and  Alexey Lutsenko won the gold and silver medals, respectively, at the men’s road race of cycling at the 19th Asian Games, Xinhua reported on Oct. 5.

Kazakhstan marks 10 years of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Silk Road Briefing published an article on Oct. 5 about the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative.

This year, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure development project, marks a decade since its launch. Kazakhstan, the country where the initiative was announced, has played a pivotal role in this endeavour.

Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country, occupies a crucial position in the BRI. Its geographical location connects China to Europe through the Eurasian landmass, making it a vital transit corridor.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has repeatedly emphasized Kazakhstan’s commitment to BRI, including his latest remarks at the 2023 Xian summit with Central Asian and Chinese counterparts in May, according to the article.

The article also notes that Kazakhstan’s involvement in the BRI directly aligns with its strategic goal of enhancing transport and logistics potential. Kazakhstan, which invested nearly $35 billion in this sector over the past five years, seeks to bring the share of the sector to 9% of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 6.2%.

Kazakhstan enacts six-month wheat import ban

Caspian News released an article on Sept. 29 about Kazakhstan’s ban on wheat imports from other countries.

This move, initiated by the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, is set to last for six months, starting from Oct. 11. It will encompass wheat imports arriving by road both from third countries and members within the Eurasian Economic Union, as highlighted in the article.

Kazakhstan is Central Asia’s largest grain producer.

Source: Astana Times

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ASTANA – The United Nations Office in Kazakhstan held a meeting with media representatives to highlight the upcoming agenda for the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit and address issues related to sustainable development on Sept. 6 in Astana. 

The SDG Summit will be held on Sept. 18-19 in New York and seeks to assess the progress made in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs. The countries will announce their global and national commitments to SDG transformation. As a result, a negotiated political declaration will be made. 

UN Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan Michaela Friberg-Storey noted the world is not moving forward. The SDGs were adopted in 2015. Since then, significant progress has been made in poverty eradication and combating unemployment. But Covid-19 hit the world, the geopolitical challenges and climate disasters. 

“We have 27 UN entities working in and with Kazakhstan to promote and advance the SDGs,” she said. “We focus primarily on policy advice to the government. Because the responsibility, the capacity, and the resources to address the needs of the country are with the government, not with the United Nations.”

Friberg-Storey also spoke about Kazakhstan’s humanitarian assistance. “Over the past 20 years or so, Kazakhstan has been supporting other countries with $500 million. Kazakhstan has recently provided aid to Afghanistan and to the victims of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria,” she said.

According to the UN, 21.3% of the land in Kazakhstan is degraded, and the life expectancy gap between men and women is eight years. Kazakhstan is the most urbanized country in Central Asia, with almost 62% of the population living in urban areas, a 73% decrease in maternal mortality rate since 1993 and 100% access to electricity.

Kazakhstan is also making progress in gender equality and education. 

Source: Astana Times

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Central Asia

It’s no secret that China is intent on influencing news narratives concerning its economic activity in Central Asia. To promote the Chinese view of developments, authorities staged an international conference, titled Hello, Silk Road, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in late July. The Uzbek outlet UzDaily reported that the gathering focused on fostering information cooperation among China and its Central Asian neighbors. Sponsored by the government-controlled China Internet Development Fund, roughly 200 media professionals from “over 20 countries,” but mostly China and Central Asia, attended the meeting. The UzDaily report quoted one of the Uzbek attendees, editor-in-chief of news website Podrobno.uz Andrei Teshayev, as saying: “The influence of information on all aspects of society is obvious, and it is growing every day, no longer just shaping the agenda in one single country, but erasing borders throughout the world. At the same time, it is important to understand that in the modern world, information is a commodity no less valuable than gold, oil or other resources.”

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz officials and a consortium of power companies have reached a deal to build a major hydropower project, dubbed the Kazarman HPP cascade. Plans call for the construction of four hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 1,160 MW, the Kyrgyz government’s press service reports. Total cost of the project could reach $3 billion. Akylbek Japarov, the chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, hailed the agreement as “the largest in the history of the Kyrgyz Republic.” The consortium is led by several leading Chinese power companies, including PowerChina Northwest Engineering Corp. Ltd and China Railway 20th Bureau Group Co Ltd. An Australian firm, Green Gold Energy, is also participating in the consortium.

China is garnering goodwill in Kyrgyzstan with its Express Health initiative, providing free healthcare services to hundreds of Kyrgyzstan citizens. About 600 citizens will undergo eye operations to correct cataracts, according to Chinese government sources. Chinese oncology specialists, meanwhile, visited Kyrgyzstan in early July to help diagnose and treat Kyrgyz cancer patients. In late July, Kyrgyz Health Minister Gulnara Baatyrova offered thanks to China’s ambassador in Bishkek, Du Dewen, for the healthcare assistance, the embassy’s press service reported.

Uzbekistan

The military prosecutor’s offices of China and Uzbekistan are set to expand cooperation aimed at addressing perceived security threats. The agreement is an outgrowth of a recent visit to China by Uzbekistan’s chief military prosecutor, Botir Kudratkhojayev. Details of the memorandum of understanding outlining enhanced cooperation were not made public. But a report on the military prosecutor’s office’s Telegram channel, mentioned that discussions between Kudratkhojayev and a top Chinese law-enforcement official focused on the “introduction of information and communication technologies into the activities of the prosecutor’s office.” Meanwhile, a delegation comprising members of China’s PLANational DefenseAcademy visited Uzbekistan to discuss “cooperation in the field of military education.” In addition, China is sponsoring the construction of a training center for Uzbek Interior Ministry.

A new Chinese education program aims to “improve the quality of teaching foreign languages and computer science in grades 5-9” for Uzbek students. To facilitate the initiative, China is supplying a large volume of equipment, including computers, laser printers, routers, projectors, electronic boards [and] air conditioners, to over 1,300 schools across Uzbekistan, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. A number of Chinese educational experts will also be deployed in Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan

A major Chinese property developer, the Peng Sheng Group, has announced plans for a major agricultural project in Kazakhstan. A local news report indicates that Peng Sheng intends to invest $46 million in the deal, which aims to cultivate cotton in Kazakhstan’s southern Turkestan Region. The report, which cites regional officials, does not specify the location of the land plot to be leased by the Chinese company. Kazakhstan in recent years has witnessed mass public protests against the leasing of agricultural land to Chinese firms. Peng Sheng reportedly has a similar, but smaller-scale project operating in Uzbekistan.

Tajikistan

China has awarded 103 scholarships to Tajik students to study at Chinese universities and institutes in the coming year, the Avesta news agency reported. China’s envoy to Tajikistan, Ji Shumin, participated in a July 28 ceremony in Dushanbe honoring the winners. The scholarships are designed to “stimulate and encourage the activity and initiative of Tajiks who are learning Chinese,” the Avesta report noted.

Source: Eurasianet

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Self-censorship, informal levers of control key concerns amid re-election of President Mirziyoyev

On July 9, Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s most populous nation, re-elected its president, in an atmosphere which local independent journalists describe as extremely constraining for their profession, limiting options for real political pluralism in Uzbekistan.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was officially declared the winner of the race, receiving 87 percent of the vote, in an election described by international observers as “lacking genuine competition”.

While there were four candidates in total, all nominated by their respective political parties, observers agreed that none of the challengers seriously aimed to take on Mirziyoyev.

Unregistered parties were excluded from the vote, as they have been in all elections since Uzbekistan declared independence in 1991. In a previous election in 2021, the banned Erk party attempted to register, nominating a popular singer, Jahongir Otajonov, as its candidate. Otajonov quit the race after being attacked. In 2021, another unregistered party, the Truth and Development party, was harassed as it tried to organize, too, and ultimately failed to obtain registration.

Opportunities for political transition further narrowed following a constitutional referendum in April this year. The referendum included changes that enable Mirziyoyev’s re-election until 2037 – mirroring a 2020 referendum in Russia whose passage officially approved the possibility of Vladimir Putin’s re-election until 2036. 

In the run-up to the referendum, independent journalists were harassed and warned against publishing critical articles, or even informing the public that the April referendum would include such changes, independent Uzbek journalists told IPI. Anora Sodiqova, editor-in-chief of online news site Rost24.uz, told IPI that she received anonymous blackmail threats in March ahead of the referendum. “Other journalists I am in touch with were summoned to the police and threatened with prosecution”, she said.

She explained that journalists received calls telling them what they can and cannot publish. “People call and ask to delete an article. Mainly this is about corruption, especially when related to the president’s family, government ministers, the head of the security services. Also, news related to the war in Ukraine (is taboo), we cannot publish news about people dying, and about the fact that Russia is invading this country.”

A ‘new Uzbekistan’?

Elected in 2016 following the death of long-time president Islam Karimov, Mirziyoyev declared his political agenda as building a “New Uzbekistan”. However, reforms did not go nearly as far as many had hoped.

“Initially, we thought we would be able to influence something in the state”, said Daryna Solod, editor-in-chief at Hook.Report, an independent online media outlet based in Tashkent.

“But the longer Mirziyoyev was in power, the more his surroundings and apparatus started resembling that of Karimov in its early years. We understood that all his reforms were just appearances, and that thinking that anything beyond slight economic liberalization was possible was simply naïve.” 

Critical reporting is the subject of a cat-and-mouse game with the Uzbek authorities, including the powerful State Security Service (SSS). “Journalists know how authorities will react”, Solod said. “For example, they publish a critical article and, following pressure, they take it down after half an hour, it appears again in cache and goes around the whole internet.” 

The scenario Solod described occurred again several weeks ago on the anniversary of mass protests in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region in the west of the country. According to official statistics, 21 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded in the 2022 unrest. In the ensuing crackdown, activist and journalist Dauletmurat Tajimuratov was sentenced to 16 years in prison, while journalist Lollagul Kallykhanova, the founder of the Makan.Uz website, received an eight-year prison sentence. In total, no fewer than 18 people were sentenced in what international human rights groups denounced as politically motivated trials.

On the anniversary of the unrest, leading Uzbek online media Gazeta.uz published an article documenting the refusal by authorities to provide a full list of those killed, let alone conduct a thorough investigation into the events. Within hours, the article was taken offline following informal pressure by authorities. However, other websites republished a cached version of the page.

Cases like this show that “independent media just about exist in Uzbekistan”, said Joanna Lillis, a freelance journalist who has reported extensively on Central Asia for outlets such as The Economist, Guardian, and Politico. 

“They feel very pressured over what they can report on”, Lillis added. “This pressure is carried out by security service officials, including through phone calls (in which journalists) are asked to remove articles. Some journalists need to submit articles for approval by security services, others practice self-censorship, which has become stronger over the past few months.” All journalists across the Uzbek media spectrum function within these limitations, Lillis explained.

 Shadows of the Karimov era remain, seven years on

Issues faced by Uzbek media stem back to the era of Islam Karimov, the country’s president until 2016. Under Karimov, media outlets published “the same four-five stories a day” dictated by the government, Daryna Solod recalled, adding that at the time, independent journalists such as herself “saw no point” in openly working on anything besides entertainment-related content.

While developments were initially promising, with all previously imprisoned journalists having been set free after the change in power, authorities have started slipping back into their old ways. Seven years after the president’s passing, much of the state apparatus of surveillance has stayed in place, said Steve Swerdlow, a human rights lawyer and former head of Human Rights Watch in Uzbekistan, now working as associate professor of the practice of human rights at the University of Southern California.

In 2018, “the government really crossed the Rubicon when, after a two-year break, it imprisoned blogger Otabek Sattoriy, and Uzbekistan again became a country with an imprisoned journalist”, Swerdlow told IPI, adding that punitive psychiatry (i.e., internment in a psychiatric hospital) had also been reintroduced, targeting bloggers who criticize the president.

“The SSS typically assigns a curator or supervisor to every media outlet in the country, who is tasked with monitoring their activity”, Swerdlow explained. “They are monitored very closely, and the security services can very quickly activate a whole host of criminal charges against journalists they do not like.”

These negative tendencies are confirmed by Daryna Solod: “This is not like in Karimov times, when we had summons and (journalists) handcuffed…(Nowadays), meetings are proposed on ‘neutral territories’, such as restaurants. In one such case, one of my journalists was threatened with prosecution on grounds of uprooting constitutional order. They told my journalist that Hook.Report can write on any topic it wants, except Mirziyoyev and his family, and that if we do, they will publish a recording accusing us of state treason.”

Repression against journalists and other critical voices has also been made easier through new repressive regulations, including prison terms for insulting the head of state, with stricter penalties if this is done in print, in the media or online.

“There is no denying that we are not back in Karimov times yet, although many journalists say that this is the way this is going”, Lillis commented. “There are still outlets doing punchy work, but there are red lines, taboo topics which media outlets are not allowed to cross, and criticizing President Mirziyoyev is the top one.” 

She added: “Mirziyoyev regularly repeats his commitment to freedom of the press, but actions speak louder than words. And this is what foreign journalists will be writing about, but Uzbek ones cannot.”

Hidden censorship and informal pressure

Solod explained that censorship in the country is often “hidden”, saying, “It’s not that we cannot write critical articles about Mirziyoyev, it’s that we do not have the possibility to write these according to standards accepted by serious news organizations. Just to start with, there are no open databases to rely on.”

Prior to the constitutional referendum in April, independent journalists “both understood that we shouldn’t be writing about this (topic), but people also called to tell us this,” Sodiqova said.

Moreover, Uzbekistan works according to what Solod calls the “six-handshake rule”, according to which the members of Uzbekistan’s narrow elite know one another, benefit from being part of the system, and have no interest in sharing sensitive information with journalists. 

Despite this, independent media are greatly popular in Uzbekistan, according to Solod,  with “civil servants massively reading media outlets such as Sarpa, Hook.Report or Anhora.”

“Things get through, with Facebook and Telegram remaining very lively”, Swerdlow confirmed, adding that “even Uzbek officials use proxy servers to access the Uzbek service of Radio Free Europe”.

Despite this, “the president has also not given a single press conference since he came to power in 2016, or a single sit-down interview”, Swerdlow said. “And that says it all.”

Source: IPI Media

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