Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

Europe and Central Asia: Country Summariesspeech, he urged lawmakers to “create new conditions for more active reportingby Uzbek media” on government policies, the Moscow-based newswebsite Ferghana reported. The administration could start the reformprocess by halting its recent use of “experts” in the state Agency for Pressand Information to build criminal defamation cases against independentreporters. These agency analysts have formulated defamation cases basedon the notion that critical journalists could insult the entire Uzbek populationand its traditions. No such broad standard of defamation appears toexist in the Uzbek Criminal Code.The practice gained international attention in January, when Tashkentpolice charged the prominent photojournalist and documentary filmmakerUmida Akhmedova with defaming and insulting the Uzbek nation. Analystswith the state Agency for Press and Information contended that thejournalist’s portfolio, which depicted life in rural Uzbekistan, along witha documentary on the traditional ban against premarital sex, had insultedthe country. “Looking at the pictures, a foreigner who had not seen Uzbekistancomes to the conclusion that this is a country where people live inthe Middle Ages. The author intentionally focuses on life’s hardships,” theagency said in an analysis submitted to the court, Ferghana reported. Noindividual complainant was presented by the prosecution.TOP DEVELOPMEN TS»»State deploys analysts to buildsweeping criminal defamationcases.Numerous regional andinternational news websitesare blocked.KEY STATISTIC6Journalistsin prison onDecember 1,the highest figure inthe region.Akhmedova was convicted but amnestied the same day as local andinternational media advocates, including CPJ, decried the prosecution. Hercriminal record, however, remained intact and her appeals were denied.The photojournalist was also barred from traveling outside the country,smeared in state-controlled media, and followed in the streets by securityagents. The Akhmedova prosecution had a precedent. In 2009, a Tashkentcourt sentenced Maksim Popov, an HIV/AIDS activist, to seven years injail on charges that included corruption of minors through distribution ofbrochures on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. According tothe written verdict, obtained by CPJ, the prosecution was based solely on213