(RSF/IFEX) – On 28 May 2003, RSF voiced deep concern about the arrests in the past two days of three members of the Union of Independent Journalists of Uzbekistan (UIJU), a press freedom organisation, two of them on charges of homosexuality and sex with minors. The organisation also deplored an attempt by a state-owned television […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 28 May 2003, RSF voiced deep concern about the arrests in the past two days of three members of the Union of Independent Journalists of Uzbekistan (UIJU), a press freedom organisation, two of them on charges of homosexuality and sex with minors. The organisation also deplored an attempt by a state-owned television station to fire a journalist who had objected to censorship and to the dismissal of the station’s news editor earlier this month.
In a letter to President Islam Karimov, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard noted that at least two newspapers have been closed and several journalists have been arrested since the start of the year, usually on false pretexts. Now, over a matter of days, at least two journalists have been dismissed from one of the state TV channels for straying from the official line or publicly denouncing press freedom violations.
“In view of this context of repression, we fear that the arrest of three members of a press freedom organisation on charges of ‘homosexuality’ and ‘sexual abuses’ is just a new, sordid way to harass or get rid of critical journalists who have upset the authorities,” Ménard said.
“We call on you to do everything possible to ensure that all forms of censorship in Uzbekistan come to an end, that the dismissed journalists are reinstated in their former positions and that press freedom activists can work freely,” Ménard’s letter concluded.
UIJU President Ruslan Sharipov and a UIJU activist, Azamat Mamankulov, were arrested in the centre of Tashkent on 26 May, between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. (local time). A third member of UIJU, Oleg Sarapulov, was arrested in a bazaar an hour and a half later. All three are currently held in a Tashkent police station. Following inquiries by Human Rights Watch representative Matilda Bogner and a U.S. embassy official, the police at first denied that the three journalists were detained. Subsequently, on the morning of 27 May, they confirmed the arrests to a representative of Freedom House, another human rights organisation.
Sharipov and Sarapulov have been accused, under articles 1.20 and 1.35 of the criminal code, of being homosexual and of paying four youths, aged 16 to 17, to have sex with them. They face three-year prison sentences. The two journalists told the president of the Uzbek human rights organisation E’zguilik, Vasilya Inoyatova, who visited them on 27 May, that they did know the youths. Mamankulov has not been charged.
Sarapulov was previously arrested on 22 February and interrogated by police for two days about copies of press articles from an opposition website, which he had in his possession. He was also questioned about leaflets produced by Hizb ut-Tahrir, a banned Islamist party, which according to Sarapulov were planted among his belongings when he was not looking. A file was opened on Sarapulov for an alleged attempt to overthrow the constitutional order (see IFEX alert of 27 February 2003).
Sharipov, who is a former correspondent for the Russian news agency Prima-News, was physically attacked and threatened because of his journalistic work several times in 2001 and 2002 (see IFEX alerts of 8 and 4 February 2002 and 19 July 2001).
Meanwhile, Elmira Khassanova, a journalist with the fourth state television channel, was dismissed on 24 May for publicly protesting censorship at the state-owned station. She had participated in a demonstration outside state TV headquarters in Tashkent on 20 May that was organised by the president of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, Elena Urlaeva, to protest the dismissal of the fourth channel’s news director, Ahmadjon Ibrahimov.
Ibrahimov was fired because of a live broadcast that showed President Karimov in a poor light during a conference of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on 4 May. While other journalists also objected to his dismissal, Khassanova was the only one to take part in the demonstration, at which she carried a placard saying, “No to censorship of Uzbek television.” The day after the demonstration, her programme was removed from the schedule. Then, on 24 May, the station’s management fired her for “destructive activity against the Uzbek President” after unsuccessfully pressuring her to resign because of the alleged poor quality of her work. Following international pressure, Khassanova was allowed to return to work on 26 May.
