DUSHANBE, August 18, 2016, Asia-Plus — Tajik government has quietly asserted the right of authorities to control the content of both state-run and privately owned broadcasters in a move that appears aimed at tightening officials” already firm grip on news and mass media, according to Radio Liberty.
A five-year decree made public this week on “guidelines for the preparation of television and radio programs” stipulates that the government — through a state broadcast committee — has the right to “regulate and control the content of all television and radio networks regardless of their type of ownership.”
The decree, which urges Tajik journalists to promote national interests, describes its aim as providing the country “impartial information.”
But it has prompted criticism that it provides the authoritarian government in Dushanbe with more power to censor independent media.
“It’s a negative development in terms of freedom of speech, in terms of political development of the country,” says Edward Lemon, a researcher at the University of Exeter in Britain.
Lemon, who specializes in Tajik affairs, says the new regulation gives the government a “greater right to monopolize information and make sure everything fits with it representation of political, economic, and social reality.”
National culture, education, and healthy lifestyles are among topics that should be covered regularly, under the decree.
But such obligatory content also includes the “propagation…of government policies in the socioeconomic and culture spheres, as well as in the fields of art, education, science, and sports.”
The decree cites the need for the “regular monitoring and review” of TV and radio programs by a special commission — the so-called Arts Council — within the TV and radio committee.
Saymuddin Doustov, a founder of an online publication and a news website, condemned the decree as “more censorship” by the state.
Doustov called on authorities to cancel the regulation, saying it contradicts laws on media freedoms.
Zafar Abdulloyev, a Dushanbe-based independent media analyst, speculated that the decree “won”t change much” because censorship and self-censorship are already widespread among Tajik media.
The Tajik government has been widely criticized for restricting media freedoms and stifling independent media outlets.
