(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the recent threats by the National Security Services (SNB) against Tulkin Karaev, the Kachdaria correspondent for the British media training organisation Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and the Uzbek service of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran radio station. The SNB has warned Karaev that he […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the recent threats by the National Security Services (SNB) against Tulkin Karaev, the Kachdaria correspondent for the British media training organisation Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and the Uzbek service of the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran radio station.
The SNB has warned Karaev that he will face charges of “collaborating with extremists” unless he changes his coverage of actions taken by the authorities following the bombings that shook the country in late March 2004.
“It is obvious that the government is using illegal methods to apply pressure against journalists who challenge censorship in Uzbekistan,” RSF said. “Karaev did nothing more than report on the violent methods used by the security forces against Muslims. The SNB’s behaviour highlights the dangerous secrecy with which the Uzbek authorities surround both the fight against terrorism and terrorist acts themselves,” the organisation added.
On 15 April, Karaev received a call from a man calling himself “Guyam”. The man said he was a member of the SNB and threatened to take legal action against the journalist for “collaborating with Islamist extremists” unless he stopped putting out “false information.”
In early April, several of Karaev’s reports about a recent waves of arrests of Muslims accused of being fundamentalists and terrorists aired on Iranian radio. Karaev also reported on the illegal and violent methods used by the security forces, including the alleged planting of drugs on an imam during his arrest.
A series of explosions, attacks and suicide bombings, followed by police operations in Tashkent and Bukhara, left 47 people dead in late March. The government blamed radical Islamists for the attacks, and the Hizb-ut Tahrir group in particular. Hizb-ut Tahrir denied any involvement in the violence.
Many journalists complained of the lack of information given by the authorities. Local people only heard of the 29 March explosions via Russian television broadcasts and the Internet. Uzbek television and radio stations either delayed broadcasting the news for several hours or, in some cases, gave no coverage of events at all.
