Uzbek TV Reporters Protest Censorship

Two Uzbek journalists working for state television have taken the rare step of speaking out publicly against censorship. 

Saodat Omonova and Malokhat Eshonkulova, employed by the Yoshlar (Youth) channel of the National TV and Radio Company, made a series of allegations against their management in an open letter to President Islam Karimov.

The letter was published in early September, but only by media in other Central Asian states.

The two female journalists accused managers at the state TV and radio company of “incompetence” and “gross violations of personnel policy”.

The programmes and reports produced by TV journalists were censored and altered.

“At their own discretion, they shorten material… containing critical views or raising burning issues,” their letter said. “We are also prohibited to write our own scripts.”

At a press conference held at the office of the Ezgulik human rights group in the capital Tashkent, Omonova said TV managers required reporting on domestic issues to be in a positive light, while anything concerning events involving the president or government had to be seen by officials from the presidential Security Council. These officials could demand changes to news bulletins, even when these were going on air.

“They manage to give us pages with corrected texts at the very last moment,” Omonova said.

Sohibjon Alijonov, chief editor of Yoshlar TV’s Davr news programme, denied the claims of censorship in an interview for the BBC.

The only precedent for such outspoken criticism from a state media employee dates from May 2003, when the well-known anchorwoman Elmira Hasanova put up a fight against the censorship of Uzbek television programmes. Her criticism of the National TV and Radio Company management led to her dismissal. But she was later reinstated and continues to work there.

A media law passed in 2006 outlaws censorship, but media-watchers say that all press and broadcast outlets continue to practice it.

“It is standard practice that officials from the state Uzbek Press and Information Agency, which serves as an unspoken censor, must grant approval for press, radio and TV content in advance of publication or broadcast,” a media expert in Tashkent said.

He added that the agency’s censors “advice” media outlet managers about “ideological content”, and place certain subjects off-limits.

Journalists in Uzbekistan are pessimistic that anything will change as a result of their two colleagues’ letter, as censorship is central to the way Uzbekistan is run.

“It isn’t feasible that censorship could be eradicated,” Vasily Markov, a freelance journalist in Tashkent, said. “The authorities don’t want a free press, as much of the way resources are distributed is done illegally.”

Markov said that if controls were lifted, media might start reporting the truth, and it would become apparent that the life of most of the population were a lot different from the way it was portrayed by the authorities.

Sergei Naumov, an independent media analyst in Uzbekistan, sympathises with the intentions expressed in the letter, and their assessment of Uzbek television.

But he too doubts their comments will have much effect on censorship.

“It’s going to be impossible to eradicate censorship in the near future,” he said. “Even if we get a whiff of democracy, tight control of media will stay in place.”

Other commentators say censorship is itself a taboo subject, accepted by everyone but never discussed.

“We broadcast only what the Uzbek National News Agency gives us,” the editor of a private radio station in Tashkent, who requested anonymity, said. “Our owners don’t want freedom of expression.”

Privately-owned media would never carry material to which censors might object as they could be stripped of their broadcasting license, he said.

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.