Sida 1 av 8 2013-06-28
Fråga-svar Kirgizistan. Journalisters situation.
Fråga
1. Hur ser situationen ut för journalister i Kirgizistan?
2. Vad kan straffet bli om journalister skriver kritiska artiklar om myndigheterna i landet?
3. Spelar det någon roll om journalisten är etnisk kirgiz eller tillhör någon minoritet, så som uzbek?
Svar
Sammanställning av information:
US Department of State (USDOS, 2013) beskriver den allmänna situationen gällande yttrande- och tryckfrihet för medier och journalister i Kirgizistan.
Anonyma hot mot journalister förekommer men också från politiker och regeringstjänstemän. Journalister uppgav sig blivit hotade p.g.a. att de skrivit om politiskt känsliga ämnen eller kritiserat offentliga personer.
USDOS rapporterar även om angrepp mot uzbekiskspråkiga medier samt om enskilda angrepp mot journalister, läs hela stycket under rubriken
”Freedom of Speech and Press” i rapporten:
The law provides for freedom of speech and press. The government took some steps toward ensuring free expression but did not consistently protect free speech.
Authorities opened, but did not conclude, investigations into some of the 2011 incidents involving threats or assaults against the media. In certain cases, even when authorities knew some perpetrators’ identities, the government did not prosecute the suspects. Some threats against journalists were anonymous, but others came
2
from politicians and government officials. As in the previous year, some journalists reported threats for covering sensitive topics, such as interethnic relations, the events of June 2010, or the rise of nationalism in the country. Others felt they were threatened for reporting critically on public figures. Many journalists, even those not assaulted or threatened, admitted to self-censoring their reporting due to fear of being targeted.
[...]
Freedom of Press: All independent Uzbek-language media in the South stopped operating after the 2010 violence, but during the year two government-owned newspapers, Alam and Osh Shami, began publishing in the Uzbek language. In June an ethnic Uzbek journalist launched Digest, a self-financed, independent Uzbek- language weekly newspaper with a circulation of 1,000.
Although Digest mainly carried news stories translated from Kyrgyz, Russian, and English sources, its publishers said law enforcement officials criticized it as
“provocative” for including an Uzbek-language translation of the constitution. They also reported occasional threats from law enforcement officers and anonymous sources. Aside from these three publications, limited Uzbek-language content appeared in Kyrgyz language outlets and publications. In 2011 some media outlets stopped operating because of local government pressure and did not reopen in 2012.
In September the NGO Internews established Yntymak Public Radio to broadcast news, talk, and musical programming in Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Russian.
Eurasianet.org reported that several ethnic Uzbek staff members of Yntymak received threats, some of which included anti-Uzbek racial epithets via cell phone text messages. As a result, some employees quit their jobs.
[…]
As in previous years, anonymous media sources alleged that some news outlets instructed their reporters not to report critically on certain politicians or government officials. The sources also reported that some news outlets received “requests” from offices of the government to report in a particular way or to ignore news stories.
Committee to Protect Journalists (2013):
President Almazbek Atambayev and his ministers declared their commitment to press freedom and rule of
3
law even as government agencies routinely subjected independent reporters to intimidation. Kyrgyzstan resisted domestic and international calls for the release of Azimjon Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek investigative reporter and human rights defender serving a life term on fabricated charges, including the murder of a police officer during ethnic violence and inciting ethnic hatred.
In a June special report, CPJ found that regional authorities targeted, tortured, and imprisoned Askarov in retaliation for his coverage of the June 2010 conflict between ethnic Uzbek and Kyrgyz residents in the south, along with his long record of in-depth reporting on abuses by regional police. The 2010 clashes continued to cast a shadow over Kyrgyzstan's press freedom record. In February, the authorities blocked domestic access to the independent regional news website Ferghana News stemming from its reporting on the conflict. Uzbek- language media outlets, which were forced to close in the aftermath of the conflict, began to make their way back into the market, but in smaller numbers, local press freedom groups reported. As in previous years, independent journalists and news outlets battled politicized prosecutions and retaliatory lawsuits.
Impunity continued in the 2007 murder of prominent editor Alisher Saipov and in the 2011 attack on his brother, journalist Shokhrukh Saipov.
Freedom House (2013a) rapporterar att journalister som intar skilda positioner i frågor som rör nationalism och den etniska majoriteten behandlas olika:
Kyrgyzstan’s civil society sector continues to diversify and expand its reach to vulnerable groups, while the growing number of online media outlets and newspapers offer a greater range of views. However, most of these positive developments take place in Bishkek, whereas access to media outlets and NGO activity is still limited in rural areas. Furthermore, the prosecution of Vladimir Farafonov, an ethnic Russian journalist, demonstrated in 2012 that justice is selective and tends to protect the ethnic majority. Farafonov was accused of politically motivated extremism after he published a series of articles that criticized rising Kyrgyz nationalism in the media and politics. None of the many journalists openly promoting the dominance of ethnic Kyrgyz or inciting hatred against minority groups in the aftermath of ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in 2010 has ever been arrested for similar charges.
Freedom House (2013b) nämner situationen för journalister som tillhör den
etniska minoritetsgruppen uzbeker. De rapporterar vidare att oberoende
journalister som skriver om politiskt känsliga frågor har trakasserats:
4
Conditions improved slightly for the Kyrgyz-language media during 2011, while ethnic Uzbek journalists were beaten and arrested, and the Uzbek population continued to be denied access to broadcasting in their own language.
Freedoms of speech and of the press are guaranteed in the Kyrgyz constitution and in the nation's laws, but observance of those rights is inconsistent. Kyrgyzstan decriminalized libel in 2011, bringing its laws into line with the constitution approved in 2010; however, insult of public officials remains a criminal offense. Access to public information is guaranteed by law, but a 2010 study by the Open Society Institute found that the law is little known and seldom used, and that information is often designated "secret" with little justification. All media outlets must register to operate, and while a number of broadcasters have applied for permission, authorities have not approved any new licenses since 2006.
Independent journalists reporting on politically sensitive issues like government corruption and the improper privatization of state companies have faced aggressive harassment from tax inspectors, security officers, and the state antimonopoly committee.
[...]
No journalists were killed in 2011. However, as in previous years, several assaults were reported.
EurasiaNet (2013) rapporterar om journalisters situation i framför allt södra Kirgizistan:
Amid a lingering climate of fear hanging over southern Kyrgyzstan, journalists there are embracing a Soviet-style survival tactic: rather than run the risk of reprisals for writing freely, they are self-censoring and reporting only on what are considered safe topics.
Appearances can be slightly deceiving when it comes to gauging the operating environment for reporters in Kyrgyzstan. Reporters Without Borders, in its 2013 World Press Freedom Index, indicated that Kyrgyzstan’s media climate is the most favorable in Central Asia, ranking it 106th, out of the 179 countries evaluated.
Tajikistan was the next best, coming in at 123rd.
Kazakhstan ranked 160th, Uzbekistan 164th and Turkmenistan 177th.
The Reporters Without Borders report looks at Kyrgyzstan as a whole. Local observers, however, say
5
that conditions in the northern and southern sections of the country are markedly different. Southern Kyrgyzstan was the scene of widespread inter-ethnic violence in 2010 and tensions have remained high there since then, with ethnic Uzbeks feeling particularly skittish. Given the situation, the quality of journalism in the region is suffering, according to a Bishkek-based media watchdog, called Journalists.
“The sad reality is that journalists in southern Kyrgyzstan try to defend themselves by heavy self-censorship,”
Aigul Matieva, a media lawyer and attorney for Journalists, told EurasiaNet.org. “Media people do not dare to write openly about their concerns, as they are low-paid and vulnerable.”
Local officials in southern Kyrgyzstan deny that the media climate is repressive. “The government does not interfere in work of journalists,” Kamil Sydykov, the head of the Osh Mayor’s Press Service, told EurasiaNet.org. “They decide how they write and what they write about. We do not control them, and do not give them instructions.”
Journalists in southern Kyrgyzstan contend that authorities don’t need to be heavy-handed because, based on what has occurred in the region over the past two-plus years, it’s easy for anyone to anticipate what can happen to those who contradict the official line. Cholpon S., a local journalist from Osh, who asked to change her name for security reasons, readily admits that she avoids writing anything critical of the policies and practices of government officials, both on the local and national level.
“I have a feeling that all critical materials are being monitored by Kyrgyz authorities, therefore I, like most of my colleagues, stay away from reporting on political, nationalism or corruption issues,” Cholpon told EurasiaNet.org. “If you criticize authorities, you may end up being questioned by a National Security Committee officer in a best-case scenario. Writing stories about growing nationalism is more dangerous, as an angry mob can attack for you being unpatriotic.”
Cholpon is not an exception as many journalists admit to being concerned about their personal security. Stanislav Polishuk, a freelance reporter based in Osh, says journalists self-censor their stories because they realize
“in case of trouble nothing can protect him or her.”
[...]
6
Begaim Usenova, the head of Institute for Media Policy in Bishkek, says the threat of lawsuits is a significant factor in media self-censorship. Kyrgyz courts are not deemed independent and officials have been known to use the judicial system to enforce their political will. An easy way to get revenge against a journalist or media outlet that riles a member of the political elite, then, is for that power-broker to file a lawsuit.
“In 2012, the Institute for Media Policy participated in 24 court trials and registered 8 acts of violence against reporters,” Usenova told EurasiaNet.org. “When former or incumbent state officials or lawmakers claim damages while suing journalists, they ask for over million soms (approximately US $21,200), which shows that they do not seek refutation, but rather want to shut down a certain media outlet.”
Se även artikeln “Kyrgyzstan: Language and Media Still Sensitive Subjects in Southern Regions” i EurasiaNet (2012) om uzbekiskspråkiga medier och journalister:
http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/229434/337687_en.html
Migrationsverket (2012) rapporterar efter en utredningsresa om den
uzbekiska minoriteten i de södra delarna av Kirgizistan och uppger att t.ex.
journalister från denna grupp som varit politiskt aktiva är särskilt utsatta:
Några av de av verket konsulterade källorna pekar på att vem som helst inom den uzbekiska minoriteten kan drabbas och kan inte identifiera några riskgrupper- eller faktorer. Utifrån ett flertal andra källors uppgifter om mönster i hittillsvarande fall av MR-kränkningar finns dock grund för att identifiera vissa kategorier av personer bland den uzbekiska minoriteten som särskilt utsatta. För det första kan personer som är eller har varit politiskt aktiva och/eller har eller har haft en ledande position i det lokala samhället, journalister och MR-aktivister som bevakar problemet med tortyr anklagas för inblandning i konflikten och riskera att utsättas för tortyr eller annan kränkande behandling. (s. 10)
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (2012) om det allmänna klimatet för tryckfrihet och journalister i Kirgizistan. Läs hela dokumentet för
rapportering om angrepp mot journalister och mediebolag:
Kyrgyzstan has climbed more than 50 places on the latest Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders, RSF, although the media rights group notes that the improved situation is still "very fragile".
7
Despite the improvements, media-watchers say too many attacks on journalists still go unpunished, and the country's parliament seems to be quietly trying to impose tighter controls on reporting.
[...]
"The media freedom situation nonetheless continues to be very fragile, with physical attacks on journalists and repressive initiatives in parliament," RSF said.
Denna sammanställning av information/länkar är baserad på informationssökningar gjorda under en begränsad tid. Den är sammanställd utifrån noggrant utvalda och allmänt tillgängliga informationskällor. Alla använda källor refereras. All information som presenteras, med undantag av obestridda/uppenbara fakta, har dubbelkontrollerats om inget annat anges.
Sammanställningen gör inte anspråk på att vara uttömmande och bör inte tillmätas exklusivt bevisvärde i samband med avgörandet av ett enskilt ärende.
Informationen i sammanställningen återspeglar inte nödvändigtvis Migrationsverkets officiella ståndpunkt i en viss fråga och det finns ingen avsikt att genom sammanställningen göra politiska ställningstaganden.
Refererade dokument bör läsas i sitt sammanhang.
