Uzbek Media Forum Does Not Herald Real Change
Uzbek Media Forum Does Not Herald Real Change
The forum, which was titled “Liberalisation of Mass Media – an Important Condition for the Democratisation of Society, was held under the aegis of the European Union and the Uzbek government on October 2-3.
According to the official Uzbek press, the forum represented “a continuation of an open and productive dialogue on democratising the media”, and discussed ways of ensuring the right to free speech, unfettered access to information, as well as of incorporating generally accepted international legal and democratic standards into national legislation and into the practical activity of journalists”.
In fact, the delegates invited by the EU made many critical remarks during the meeting on such matters as the arrest of journalists, the lack of alternative opinions in the press, and the unspoken practice of self-censorship in Uzbekistan. Afterwards, they released a statement saying the event should not be seen as a sign of improvement as the EU moves to reconsider its sanctions against Uzbekistan.
The participants on the EU side included representatives of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), Article 19, the International Crisis Group, Deutsche Welle Academy and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR.
This was the third media conference this year that the Uzbek authorities have held up as an example of open dialogue on freedom of speech.
In June, a conference on “media freedom in a modern democratic society” took place in Tashkent. This was originally conceived as a joint EU-Uzbekistan event, but turned into a unilateral pro-government to which independent journalists were not admitted. It was followed in late September by a seminar on the role of media in an information society. Once again, the tone of that meeting was that Uzbekistan’s media were developing in a positive way and becoming more independent, against a sound legislative background.
According to official statistics, Uzbekistan has seen a boom in media outlet numbers, with about 900 newspapers and magazines currently being published, and 100 or so TV and radio channels and internet sites.
However, media-watchers say the quantitative increase has not resulted in an improvement in editorial quality. There has, they argue, been no substantive progress.
For example, one observer in Tashkent says local media reporting was been neither timely nor balanced on such matters as the explosion at an ammunition depot near Bukhara in July, the massive use of child labour in the cotton fields, and – internationally – the Russian-Georgian conflict in August.
“The press continues to say only what it is allowed to say by the authorities, and only in a form that suits the authorities,” he added.
Other commentators agree, noting that neither the authorities’ stated readiness to hold a dialogue on media issues nor the holding of public forums has produced tangible results to date.
“Such events have zero effectiveness,” said Oleg Borisov, an independent analyst from Uzbekistan. “Positive reforms will only happen when the ruling elite becomes entirely liberal. And that doesn’t look likely right now.”
Media experts say the overall situation remains unchanged – censorship is strictly enforced, and a whole list of subjects remains off-limits to the press. The journalistic community is thus less than hopeful that positive recommendations emanating from such forums will be put into practice.
One local journalist said he doubted that even an EU-sponsored forum could have much impact on the state of free speech, or that it would help make the Uzbek media at least partially free.
He says the Uzbek authorities have no interest in allowing truly independent media to emerge, and instead continue with a secretive information policy and strict censorship. Such forums, he said, are all the same, as everything gets approval from above in advance.
“President [Islam] Karimov merely wants to create a semblance of open dialogue on freedom of speech,” he concluded.
In its 2008 report, the United States-based watchdog Freedom House placed Uzbekistan among the top ten states with the most repressive policies on media rights, while Reporters Without Borders ranked the country 160th out of 169 in terms of the level of freedom.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
