DUSHANBE, July 5, 2010, Asia-Plus — Amendments to the country’s law on the press and other media endorsed at the government session that took place in late June meet requirements of modern journalism, the head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on International Affairs, Public Associations and Information Olimjon Salimzoda, who authored these amendments, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“The amendments will allow Tajikistan’ law on the press and media to become the best media law in Central Asia,” Salimzoda said.
According to him, the proposed amendments obligate government bodies to provide official responses at the request of journalists within three days. Under the current media law, the government bodies have one month to answer to questions of journalists. “Adoption of these amendments will raise the level of responsibility of officials and ensure an opportune response to the media requests and published critical materials,” MP noted.
We will recall that the current law on the press and other media was adopted in late 1990 and amendments have been made to this law seven times.
According to the Ministry of Culture (MoC), 240 newspapers have been registered in the country to this day; 139 of them are published in Dushanbe and the remaining 101 newspapers are published in the provinces. 52 newspapers are run by state, 119 newspapers are the social ones, 32 are the private newspapers and 37 other newspapers are the departmental ones.
Besides, 124 magazines have been registered in Tajikistan; 11 of them are published in Dushanbe, six in Sughd province, three in Khatlon province, two in Gorno Badakhshan, one in districts subordinate to the center and one in Moscow. 44 magazines are the private publications.
Seven news agencies now function in Tajikistan; one of them is the state-run and six others are private. Besides, 44 printing houses now operate in Tajikistan; 38 of them are private.
