DUSHANBE, February 17, 2014, Asia-Plus – The Ministry of Culture has shut down the Dushanbe independent weekly
Hafta
(The Week) straight after the first edition of the weekly was published on February 15.
Hafta
reportedly succeeds to the
Ovoza va Haqiqat
weekly that was published from March 2011 to October 2013.
Hafta
editor Abduqayum Qayumzod says the Ministry of Culture justified its decision to shut down
Hafta
by saying that “it allegedly changed its orientation from being the cultural and educational newspaper to the political and social newspaper.”
“The ministry also notes that our founder has been changed, but we have not informed them of that,” Qayumzod said.
According to him, the ministry noted that serious errors had been made in the first edition of the newspaper, and therefore, the ministry declared registration of the newspaper invalid.
The first edition of
Hafta
has published an interview of known Tajik poet Mumin Qanoat, in which he noted that a school in the Russian city of Volgograd was named after him while the Tajik television has not regarded him with favor, especially over the last four years.
