DUSHANBE, July 28, 2008, Asia-Plus — On July 24, former reporter of the Tajik Service of RFE/RL, Sayof Mizrob, last week applied to the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office over reports by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.
The monitoring service within the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit) said that Mizrob had justified his action by saying that reports having been released by the Tajik Service of Radio Liberty allegedly insult the president, his relatives, the government of the country, as well as prosecutor’s office and known figures of the country.
According to Nansmit, Sayof Mizrob considers attitude of RFE/RL’s Tajik Service to Tajikistan biased and gives arguments for his statement.
“Mizrob, in particular, says that Radio Liberty has broadcast only critical materials of Tajikistan over years,” said Nansmit. “In his interview with the Dushanbe weekly
Nigoh
, Mizrob claims that Radio Liberty published unfounded reports about “murder” of Hasan Sadulloyev, and thereby it allegedly discredited reputation of president’s relatives.”
The source at the Prosecutor-General’s Office confirmed that they had received Sayof Mizrob’s application.
We will recall that on July 10, Sayof Mizrob, former reporter of the Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, released a statement, protesting against the terms of contracts of employment drawn up by the RFE/RL’s Tajik Service. He asserts that they are in contrary to Tajikistan’s labor legislation. Besides, according to Sayof Mizrob, Radio Liberty has broadcast only critical materials of Tajikistan over years. In his statement, the reporter noted that taking into account that his rights as citizen and journalist are violated, he does not want to oppose his people and homeland under the pressure of the RFE/RL’s Tajik Service and leaves his job at that radio.
The Tajik service was established in March 1953 as part of Radio Liberty”s broadcasting to the Soviet Union. Radio Ozodi opened its Dushanbe bureau in 1996 and has local reporters in the country”s major cities. In April 2007, Radio Ozodi launched satellite broadcasts on Hot Bird in order to provide its audience with improved sound quality. In October 2007, Radio Ozodi re-launched its website, using the latest technology to offer photo galleries and video clips of daily events in Tajikistan and the world. Ozodi.org has become one of most popular and trusted Tajik-language websites in the country.
