30 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
A Tajik journalist is facing 16 years in prison, following charges of defamation. Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter for the independent weekly paper Nuri Zindagi, was arrested for defamation, insult, and incitement following an article in which he criticised government and law enforcement officials in the Asht district in the northern Sogd region of Tajikistan. During his hearing yesterday, prosecutors asked the court to sentence the journalist to 16 years imprisonment, while Ismiolov’s lawyer claimed investigators had failed to prove he was guilty, and called for his release. The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for 3 October.
24 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost
A BBC World Service reporter who was arrested in Tajikistan this summer has said he was burned with lit cigarettes and beaten while detained. Although the specific charges against journalist Urunboy Usmanov remain unclear, he has been accused in the country’s state media of being a member of Hizb ut-Tahr an Islamist organisation which is banned in the country.
17 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost
A BBC World Service journalist who was arrested in Tajikistan a month ago appeared in court yesterday. Although the specific charges against reporter Urunboy Usmanov remain unclear, he has been accused in the country’s state media of being a member of Hizbut-Tahrir, an extreme Islamist organisation which is banned in the country.
08 Feb 11 | Index Index, minipost
An opposition journalist has been hospitalised after being attacked near his home in Dushanbe. Khikmatullo Saifullozoda is the editor of the Nadzhot newspaper, which is owned by the Islamic Renaissance of Tajikistan party. He sustained a concussion and his face was been badly disfigured in the incident. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have raised the issue of the “increasing pressure on independent media” in Tajikistan. The chairman of the National Association of Independent Media has confirmed that “journalists and publications are threatened (and) questioned“.
