DUSHANBE, May 16, 2013, Asia-Plus – On May 15, human rights and media organizations, including the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit), released statement regarding the current situation at Radio Liberty’s services broadcasting to Central Asia’s nations.
The statement addressed to the Acting President of Radio Free Europe/radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Mr. Kevin Klose, in particular, notes that they are concerned about the current situation at the Radio “Liberty” services, which broadcast to the countries of Central Asia. Crisis on Radio “Liberty” leads to restriction of freedom of expression in Central Asia. The materials of the Kazakh and Turkmen services of RFE/RL duplicate the information contained in the government press.
“The time of broadcasting on short waves to Uzbekistan has been reduced by half; labor rights of the Kazakh and Tajik correspondents of RFE/RL are violated.
“Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) – is a mass media outlet, whose mission is to be a channel for democratic values. However, cases of the violation of the rights of the employees and a step back from international standards of freedom of mass media, which we see in the activity of some of the Radio Liberty services, cause resentment among journalist and human rights community of Central Asia.
“Authoritarian leaders in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not going to give up their positions.
“In the beginning of May 2013 Rovshan Yazmukhamedov, an RFE/RL correspondent in Turkmenistan, was arrested. It is rather disturbing that at first the leadership of the editorial board suppressed the fact of his arrest. Only four days after the arrest, owing to the persistence of the employees who reminded the Director of the Turkmen service M. Tahir about the death of the journalist Muradova, the director dared to announce publicly that Yazmukhamedov was detained.
“Journalists’ rights are being violated in Tajikistan as well. Tajik correspondent of RFE/RL Abduqayum Qayumzod was refused accreditation. Despite the fact that Qayumzod has worked for 12 years in RFE/RL and had a permanent contract with the employer and support of the accreditation is a responsibility of the employer, the leadership of the Tajik service of the Radio unilaterally terminated the labor contract with Qayumzod and left him in limbo. Correspondent referred to court for protection of his labor and professional rights. This is not the first case: in 2012 Gulnora Ravshan, correspondent of the Uzbek service of RFE/RL covering Tajikistan was forced to leave the country with her underage children due to refusal of accreditation and personal threats to her. However, the leadership of the respective Radio service did not take effective measures to protect the rights of its correspondent.
“In conjunction with the fact that the leadership of the Tajik RFE/RL service systematically violates the labor rights of journalists, six media organizations and one political party of Tajikistan decided to abstain from collaboration with the Tajik service of RFE/RL. The boycott will continue unless the correspondent of the service Abduqayum Qayumzod is reinstated in his former job via court decision.
“Analysis of the materials of the Kazakh service of RFE/RL shows that the crisis in the editorial staff has achieved its highest point. Since 2008, it has been broadcasting mainly via Internet; currently the air broadcasting has entirely stopped. Materials of the Kazakh editorial board do not always reflect the situation in Kazakhstan accurately. They do not touch upon acute political topics and virtually duplicate the government press. The Kazakh editorial board routinely suppresses information, which is uncomfortable for the Kazakhstan authorities. Thus, it ignored the attempted kidnapping of an emigrant Ainur Kurbanov by the National Security Committee during the protest in Moscow in December 2012. However, the Kazakh RFE/RL service widely covers the official government events and creates a positive image of Nursultan Nazarbyaev and his authoritarian regime. At the same time leaders of the Kazakhstan opposition are discredited. Since 2010 a lot of materials have been published on the Kazakh service site propagating Kazakh radical nationalism and chauvinism, openly insulting Russians, Uzbeks, Uighurs and Chinese.
“Developments at the Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) touch upon the interests of all audience of the radio: be it a lonely mother of a prisoner or a student or a correspondent of your radio working in the field.
“Lately, fundamental rights of the citizens of Central Asia are being violated under the pretext of “global security.” However, this important problem is directly related to the human rights and liberties.
“Access to reliable information is of critical importance to the audience of Radio Liberty to maintain its trust to the Western democracies and to the American democracy, in particular.”
In this connection, the statement authors ask Mr. Klose to set up an independent commission to examine the situation at Kazakh, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek services of Radio Liberty in order to objectively evaluate the extent of observance of the principles of freedom of expression, professional rights and journalist ethics, Charter of RFE/RL.
They also pointed to the necessity of reviewing the decisions on selective dismissal of a number of correspondents (Kazakh service: Saida Kalkulova, Nazira Darimbet, Sagat Batyrkhan, Ukulyai Bestai, Sultankhan Jussip; Tajik service: Abduqayum Qayumzod; Turkmen service: Nazar Khudaiberdy Jakhan, Guvanch Gere, Oguljamal Yazlieva, Murat Nurgeldy).
