DUSHANBE, May 15, 2014, Asia-Plus — In response to a court in Tajikistan upholding a guilty verdict and a $6,000 fine against the independent news outlet Asia Plus and its editor Olga Tutubalina, Freedom House issued the following statement on May 14:
“A Tajik court’s decision to levy a fine against Asia Plus and its editor, Olga Tutubalina, for publishing a remark by Vladimir Lenin as part of her criticism of the country’s elite is a clear example of censorship, aimed at sending a political message to civil society and the press,” said Susan Corke, director for Eurasia programs at Freedom House.
“The Tajik government and courts should defend the constitution and uphold Tajikistan’s domestic and international commitments to protect free expression. Courts should reject specious claims that misuse the justice system to censor legitimate speech.”
Tajikistan is rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2014 and Freedom of the Press 2014.
We will recall that a court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district that considered a case pitting five Tajik creating unions and three separate individuals (D. Abdiyeva, A. Rajabov and H. Rahmatov) against the
Asia-Plus
newspaper and its editor, Ms. Olga Tutubalina, ruled on February 25 that the newspaper and its editor must publish a disclaimer and pay 30,000 somoni to D. Abdiyeva, A. Rajabov and H. Rahmatov.
Five Tajik creative unions and thee separate individuals have filed a lawsuit against the
Asia-Plus
newspaper and its editor Olga Tutubalina, asking for 200,000 somoni as compensation for moral damage.
The case stems from the article “Unintelligent about Intelligentsia” by Olga Tutubalina published in the newspaper on May 29, 2013. In her article about Tajik intelligentsia, Ms. Tutubalina used citation from Lenin’s letter to Maxim Gorky of September 15, 1919, “The intellectual forces of the workers and peasants are growing and getting stronger in their fight to overthrow the bourgeoisie and their accomplices, the educated classes, the lackeys of capital, who consider themselves the brains of the nation. In fact they are not its brains but its shit.”
Plaintiffs say the article by Olga Tutubalina insulted honor and dignity as well as reputation of a large social group of people and caused moral damage to them.
For her part, Ms. Tutubalina said that she did not mean to insult anyone. At the same time, she insisted she had nothing to apologize for.
On March 18, lawyers representing the newspaper and Olga Tutubalina filed the appeal in the Dushanbe city court noting that the judgment filed by the Firdavsi district court is illegal and unfounded.
The appeals court of the Dushanbe city court concluded consideration of the appeal filed by newspaper
Asia-Plus
on April 30 and rejected it.
Newspaper’s defense lawyers denounced the ruling and vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tajikistan.
