DUSHANBE, February 2, 2010, Asia-Plus – On February 1, Tajik Journalist’s Union, the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit), the Council for Media of Tajikistan and some other media organizations made a joint statement, in which they express concern about the fact that cases of filing lawsuits against independent media have become frequent tin the country.
The statement, in particular, says that according to information received, three judges from the Supreme Court and a Dushanbe’s court on January 29 filed lawsuits against lawyer Solehjon Jurayev and three independent weeklies: Asia-Plus; Farazh and Ozodagon.
Nur Nurov and Ulughbek Mahmadshoev, judges from the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, and Fakhriddin Dodometov, judge from the Dushanbe city court, are asking for totaling 5.5 million somoni (equivalent to more than 1.25 million) in damages after an open statement made by lawyer Jurayev at the session of the appeals court of the Supreme Court on January 18, 2010 published in the weeklies’ editions allegedly insulted their honor and dignity.
Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) had filed lawsuit against the Dushanbe independent weekly, Millat (Nation), in the court of Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district, asking for 1 million somoni in damages after an article entitled “The Ministry of Agriculture Is the Most Corrupt Establishment” published in the weekly on December 10, 2009 allegedly defamed it.
We assess all these measures as continuation of illegal actions and selective use of law with regard to independent TV station, Simoi Mustaqili Tojikiston, and the independent newspaper Paykon, the statement said, noting that all these actions are in contrary to the Constitution of Tajikistan and Article 30 of the RT Law “On the Press and Other Mass Media”.
“Of course, taking legal action to protect honor, dignity and goodwill is the legitimate right of every citizen, including judge and minister,” said the statement, “However, we consider that if the problem is to restore justice – correcting mistakes, publishing reply or disclaimer – it would be more expedient to solve the issue through applying to the Council for Media of Tajikistan without bringing it into court, while harassing citizens, in particular lawyer, for using their constitutional right to freedom of speech, criticism of judicial and executing powers, as well as using punitive measures for the freedom of expression are in contrary with democratic principles and undermine Tajikistan’s image on international arena, especially ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections.”
According to local media experts, this negative tendency can lead to restriction of media freedoms and increase in self-censorship among Tajik journalists.
