15 Feb 17 | Magazine, News and features, Uzbekistan
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Writing for Index on Censorship magazine’s autumn 2015 issue, writer Mamadali Makhmudov explored how his life had been upended by censorship in his native Uzbekistan. Arrested twice and imprisoned for 14 years, he was released in 2013 after an international outcry. He continues to be blacklisted and his works are silenced. Now, after the death of his wife, with his health failing, Makhmudov writes to bring us up to date on the frozen situation for freedom of expression for him and his country.
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Mamadali Makhmudov
In 1943, my father Mahmud Ahmad-oghli, before he left for Great Patriotic War, said the following words to my mother, Saodat Izbosar-qizi: “Take care of my son. I will go to fight against Russian invaders on the German side…” I was a little baby then. But on my passport my age was written incorrectly: December 12, 1940. Place of birth: Boghdon village in Forish District (this name given by Tamerlane was actually named after Paris). The village I was born is situated at the foot of Nurota Mountains.
My father was a mountain-bek. Russian invaders hanged my grandfather Ahmad Aksakal in Narvon village in 1936. This is the detailed story: During its invasion of Boghdon, the wild enemy killed men, raped women, and pulled babies out of women’s wombs. That time, Ahmad Aksakal, together with his supporters, got ready to fight at Otuchganqoya rock. Using a trick, he brought the enemy (400 Russians) to the ambush at the dark ravine and suddenly attacked them, killing part of the enemy. He took 300 hundred Russians as hostages. My grandfather was so furious that he made the enemy to crack each other’s genital organs with stone. He burned them in front of the people, saying they are “unclean blood”. Now, there are three “Russian Hills” in Boghdon.
Though I know that in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it’s not good to have bitter indignation at someone, I have a very strong desire for revenge. I finished an elementary school in Boghdon with such feelings. Later I studied at the Uchquloch gold mine (14 km far from our village) until the eighth grade.
It was my childhood dream to become a writer. I had a poor living condition, but I used to ask for books by helping people around me. Despite a hard life, I found time to read books. The works by European writers such as Shakespeare, Byron, Goethe, Hugo, Scott, translated from Russian into Uzbek, were my favorite books. May God forgive me, but I sometimes I had to deceive my mother and went to the graveyard, bush or ravines to read books till late evening.
In 1959-1961, I served in the army in Ukraine as a tank commander. In 1962, together with my crew, I went to Russia’s Efremov City in Tula region and worked at a chemistry plant construction. From there I was sent to chemical and automobile industry training in Voronezh for one year. Then I returned to Efremov and worked as mechanic’s assistant.
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May God forgive me, but I sometimes I had to deceive my mother and went to the graveyard, bush or ravines to read books till late evening.
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In 1964, I came back to my homeland. I worked at Chrchiq Chemical Plant as mechanic for almost three years. Simultaneously, I finished evening courses for 10th and 11th grades. In 1966, I entered the Tashkent State University’s Faculty of Journalism. Because of a tough life, I had to study by correspondence. I worked for several newspapers in Guliston, Forish and Pakhtakor Districts as a proofreader and editor.
In 1968, the editor-in-chief of Saodat magazine, the poetess Zulfia, invited me to Tashkent and I have lived there since then.
When I was an eighth-grade schoolboy, I had a clear idea in my mind: “I will fight against Russian invaders not with a gun, but with a pen!” I think my mother, born in Kattaturk village in Samarkand, had encouraged me for such an idea. She once said to me: “Your grandpa Ahmad Aksakal often said the following: ‘Turkistan became a property for Russia. Day and night, they chased after our wealth, divided one nation into five different nations, and gave them five strange names and Cyrillic alphabet…’ You, sonny, should measure up to your grandpa!”
Based on my unchangeable faith and credo, I started writing short stories (Brook and Poplar, Horse, Hawthorn, etc.) to reveal the invader’s main purpose and ideology. They became sensation and were published in many newspapers and magazines, as well as in a collection called My Boghdon in 1971.
A power of liberty able to sweep Russian invaders from Central Asia came out that time, putting Moscow in anxiety and panic. Therefore, the Kremlin started its own propaganda against it. The propaganda was full of lie and slander (whoever believes Russia and China will never be able to correct that mistake). Russia called the freedom seekers “bosmachi” and tried to quickly get rid of them. To stand for it, I wrote my novel called Foggy Days (The Wolf of Boghdon), which also was warmly received by wide public.
Before my work appeared publicly, the USSR falsely described in historical books that “Russia annexed Central Asia.” I wrote it in my novel called Immortal Rocks, published in Sharq Yulduzi magazine in 1981. I wrote that Russia invaded Turkestan in exchange for the blood of millions of people.
For this work, I was dismissed from my work at the Writers’ Union. They took away all copies of the magazine. And I was in the black list of KGB for a long time. If Mr. Sharof Rashidov did not help me through Brezhnev, I would never come out of the prison.
Later, the novel was published in Germany, Turkey and France. I worked as the Secretary of the Writers’ Union and Chairman of Cultural Foundation. My friends know me as a person who fought for liberty.
When dependent nations gained independence thanks to Gorbachyov, a Communist, pro-Russian, ignorant and dictator became our ruler. He (Karimov) left a country full of corruption, with poor economy, agriculture, industry. He turned Uzbekistan into a big prison. He arrested freedom lovers and honest business people. Ethical norms were completely violated in the country. Eight million people left the country because of oppression, hunger and persecution. On fabricated charges (they put heroin, leaflets in my workplace and house) I was sentenced to 17 years in prison for allegedly being a member of Erk Party. I wrote several novels and short stories in the prison, but they took my work away. I hardly was able to get some parts of my novels such as Oynur, Oq Gul, and Bo’z Bo’ri. In 2013, when I was released with the help of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European humanitarian organizations, I rewrote those books.
Oynur and Oq Gul are about that black history of the USSR and KGB. Bo’z Bo’ri is about the Arab invasion of Turon, their ruthless attacks, destructions of intelligentsia and other oppression. It’s about Muqanna, who bravely fought against those invaders. These books, along with my other articles and essays, are published on websites based in Europe, Canada and the United States.
I lost my health in prison, where hundreds of people die. I have had three heart attacks. I have ulcer in my stomach and my eyes have some other problems (cataract). I have six stones in my kidney. In short, I am in a poor health condition.
First of all, I need to have a stimulator installed in my heart. But I have no money for that, since we barely survive. Within 17 years, my family has been in debt. Despite working for state organisations for 40 years I receive a pension of just 179,000 UZS. And I even had to struggle for that for seven months. I don’t have enough means to buy medicine either. My books are not published in my own country. I am a banned author and I am always under surveillance.
When I was released, some humanitarian organizations in Europe and U.S., PEN Club and my friends supported me and we could get rid of 70% of our debt. Recently, my spouse Gulsara Mahmud died of heart attack. We are again in debt now.
Life is difficult. Nevertheless, I am writing the truth, only truth.
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09 Feb 17 | Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Youth Board
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To highlight the most pressing concerns for press freedom in Europe in 2017, members Index’s outgoing youth board review the year gone by with some of our Mapping Media Freedom correspondents.
Youth board member Sophia Smith Galer, from the UK, spoke to Ilcho Cvetanoski, Mapping Media Freedom correspondent for Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia.
According to Cvetanoski, a lot has improved in the region over the last 15 years. The era during which journalists were targeted and killed is long passed, but the media is still dogged by censorship and political divides. In fact, journalists are regularly threatened and vilified by political elites, often denounced as foreign mercenaries, spies and traitors. Cvetanoski reports that this has led to “physical threats, the atmosphere of impunity, media ownership and also verbal attacks amongst the journalists themselves”. He notes that techniques pressuring journalists have changed from “blatant physical assaults to more subtle ones”.
The breaking up of the former Yugoslavia has undoubtedly been a historical burden on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Cvetanoski describes this legacy as having left “deep scars in every aspect of the people’s lives, including the lives and the work of journalists”. Media workers are still remembered as having once been tools of the state. Nowadays, the opposite is happening; they’re being criticised by political elites as enemies of the state simply for scrutinising politicians’ behaviour.
It’s unsurprising that this has left many journalists in the region politicised, undermining professionalism and trust in the media. Conservative politicians court sympathisers in the media so that they can manipulate the angle and content of stories that are run. The fact that journalist salaries are low and that the economic situation is poor overall further imperils journalistic integrity in the face of bribes.
If the situation remains as it is – with limited and highly controlled sources for financing the media, a poor political culture and low media literacy among citizens – then Cvetanoski holds little hope for the future of press freedom in the region. News consumers aren’t equipped with the literacy levels to distinguish between professional versus sensational journalism, nor are the sources of media funding transparent or appropriate. “In this deadlock democracy, the first victims are the citizens who lack quality information to make decisions.”
Mapping Media Freedom is helping to change this. Making journalists feel less alone and offering a space for them to report threats to press freedom ensures that the hope for a free press throughout Europe is kept alive.
The youth board’s Constantin Eckner, from Germany, spoke with Zoltán Sipos, the MMF correspondent for Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
As MMF illustrates, journalists in all three countries have to deal with constant pressure from authorities and various degrees of censorship. In 2016, 42 incidents were reported in Hungary, 21 in Romania and 7 in Bulgaria.
Index on Censorship’s regional correspondent Zoltán Sipos, who is also the founder and editor of Romania’s investigative outlet Átlátszó Erdély, points out that the Hungarian government and its allies within the country follow a sophisticated plan to neutralise critical media outlets. Several newspapers that struggled financially have been purchased by rich business people or media moguls in recent history. “Just like in regards to any other part of society, prime minister Viktor Orbán seeks for a centralisation of the media industry,” Sipos says.
Yet, instead of simply controlling the media, Orbán and the reigning party Fidesz intend to use established outlets and broadcasters to construct narratives in favour of their agendas. Only a handful of independent outlets remain in Hungary.
In November 2016, Class FM, Hungary’s most popular commercial radio channel, was taken off the air. The Media Council of Hungaryʼs National Media refused to renew its licence as Class FM was owned by Hungarian oligarch Lajos Simicska, whose outlets became very critical towards the government after a quarrel between him and Orbán.
The authorities in Romania and Bulgaria might not follow a well-wrought plan, but the situation for critical journalists is as severe. “The main problem is that most outlets can’t generate enough revenue from the market,” Sipos explains. “These outlets found themselves under constant pressure, as powerful business people are willing to purchase them and use them to promote their own political agendas.” Ultimately, this issue leads to the demise of independent reporting and weakens voices critical of the ruling parties and influential political players.
Sipos concludes that “these three countries have little to no tradition of independent journalism.” Although death threats towards, or even violence against journalists do not exist, the working conditions for critical reporters are difficult.
He recommends the investigative outlets Bivol.bg from Bulgaria, atlatszo.hu and Direkt36.hu from Hungary as well as RISE Project and Casa Jurnalistului from Romania as bastions of independent journalism. A few mainstream outlets that conduct critical reporting are 444.hu, index.hu, HotNews.ro and Digi24.
Layli Foroudi, a youth board member from the UK, interviewed Mitra Nazar, MMF correspondent for Serbia, Kosovo, Slovenia and the Netherlands.
A Dutch national based in Belgrade, Serbia and the Netherlands are Nazar’s natural beats, and she also monitors media freedom in the nearby Balkan states of Slovenia and Kosovo.
This year, Serbia has been the most intense of the four countries to cover. Serbian journalists have been subject to physical attacks and the government has maintained a smear campaign against independent media outlets in the country.
“This is a very organised campaign,” explains Nazar, “they’re being called foreign spies and foreign mercenaries.”
The “foreign spy” accusation has a real effect on the personal safety of journalists, whose pictures are often published alongside such accusations in the pro-government media. Nazar, who wrote a feature on the subject, says that this can cause such journalists to be branded as unpatriotic and anti-Serbian: “When the government accuses journalists of being “foreign spies”, it gives the impression that these independent journalists are against Serbia as a country.”
The ruling party of Serbia even went so far as to organise a touring exhibition called Uncensored Lies, where the work of independent media was parodied in an attempt to prove that the government does not censor, however, the exhibition also served to discredit these publications by calling the content “lies”.
“Can you imagine the ruling party organises an exhibition discrediting independent media,” says Nazar, shocked, “this is not indirect censorship, it is directly from the government.”
The media landscape in the Netherlands does not experience direct state-sponsored censorship, but there are other challenges. The Netherlands ranks 2nd in the 2016 RSF World Press Freedom Index, but Nazar has still reported a total of 49 incidents since the Mapping Media Freedom project started, from police aggression against journalists, to assaults on reporters during demonstrations, to broadcasters being denied access to public meetings.
For 2017, she is interested in looking into how the Dutch media deals with the rise of the far right and a growing anti-immigrant sentiment, especially in the upcoming elections which will see controversial far-right candidate Geert Wilders stand for office.
Last year, a Dutch tabloid De Telegraaf published an article about the arrival of refugees to the Netherlands with a sensational headline that generated a lot of debate in the Dutch media, which Nazar says is becoming increasingly politicised and polarised.
For Nazar, there is a line to be drawn with what legacy media outlets should and should not publish. “That line is representing and following the facts,” she says, “if you publish a headline that says there is a “migrant plague”, that is beyond facts – it is a political agenda.”
The youth board’s Ian Morse, from the USA, interviewed Vitalii Atanasov, the MMF correspondent for Ukraine.
In just the past two months in Ukraine, journalists have been assaulted, TV stations have been banned and governments on both sides of the country’s conflict with Russia have sought to limit public information and attack those who publicise.
Vitalii Atanasov is the correspondent who reported these incidents to the Mapping Media Freedom project. Drawing on sources from individual journalists to large NGOs, Atanasov monitors violations of media plurality and freedom in Ukraine for the project. To verify a story, he sometimes contacts media professionals directly, or crowdsources through social media, as he finds that all journalists publicise cases of violation of their rights, attacks, and incidents of violence.
“Some cases are complicated, and the information about them is very contradictory,” Atanasov tells Index. “So I’m trying to trace the background of the conflict that led to the violation of freedom of expression and media.”
Many of the violations that occur in Ukraine are either individual attacks on media workers by separatists in the east or Ukrainian officials attempting to control the media through regulation and licensing.
Of about a dozen and a half reports since he began working with MMF, Atanasov says many reports stick out, such as the “blatant” attempts of authorities to influence the work of major TV channels such as Inter and 1+1 channels. Most recently, Ukraine banned the independent Russian station Dozhd from broadcasting in Ukraine. While TV has recently been the target, problems with media freedom have come from almost everywhere.
“The sources of these threats can be very different,” Atanasov says, “for example, representatives of the authorities, the police, intelligence agencies, politicians, private businesses, third parties, criminals, and even ordinary citizens.”
Atanasov and MMF build off the work of other groups working in Ukraine, such as the Institute of Mass information, Human Rights Information Center, Detector Media, and Telekritika.ua.
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/
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06 Feb 17 | Mapping Media Freedom, News and features
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Each week, Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project verifies threats, violations and limitations faced by the media throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries. Here are recent reports that give us cause for concern.
Three journalists working for Quotidien, a daily current affairs show, were violently ejected from of a conference at Palais des Congrès on 1 February after attempting to ask a question to leader of the National Front party Marine Le Pen, newspaper Libération reported.
Journalist Paul Larrouturou, who had an accreditation allowing him to be present during the Salon des Entrepreneurs, attempted to ask Le Pen about claims she had misused European parliament funds to pay her body guards.
Larrouturou asked Le Pen: “Was your bodyguard really your parliamentary assistant or…”.
The journalist was grabbed from behind before finishing the question. He and two of his colleagues were then prevented from coming back inside by security.
The National Front told French newspaper Le Parisien that it did not take responsibility for the actions of the security guards, saying: “It’s not us. There were no instructions [from us]. We don’t run the Palais.”
However, the journalists said it was a member of Le Pen security who gave the order to expel them.
This is not the first incident where the three journalists encountered problems with the Front National. They were assaulted by Front National supporters during the 1 May 2015 party march.
Turkish journalist Arzu Demir was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation through two books she has authored, independent news website T24 reported.
The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court handed down a three year sentence for each book in a trial session held on 26 January.
Demir was being tried on charges of “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation,” “praising a crime and a criminal” and “inciting the public to commit a crime” in her books Dağın Kadın Hali, meaning The Female State of the Mountain and Devrimin Rojava Hali, meaning The Rojava State of Revolution.
Dağın Kadın Hali features interviews with 11 women who are Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government. A Turkish court had banned the book and ordered it to be pulled from bookstore shelves on 15 March 2016.
The Rojava State of Revolution, banned in April 2016, investigates the current attempts to rebuild in the Syrian Kurdish city of Rojava.
In an interview with independent news website Bianet, Arzu Demir said: “I have always said, since the start of these trials, that the case is a political trial based on the current conditions. This ruling is proof of that. All I did, as I said in my statement, was journalism.”
“I am glad that I’ve written [these books] and I am continuing to write,” she added.
The court did not introduce any possible reductions to the journalist’s sentence on the grounds that she had shown “no regret” for the alleged crime.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) raided the flat of former editor-in-chief of Vesti.Reporter magazine, Inna Zolotukhina, in Kharkiv around 7.30 AM on 27 January, Detector Media reported.
“I opened the door and a crowd of men entered the apartment. There were seven people, three of them from Kyiv’s Security Service of Ukraine, two from Kharkiv’s Security Service of Ukraine and two witnesses”, Zolotukhina told Detector Media.
At the same time, another search was conducted at the journalist’s mother’s house in Brovary near Kyiv.
Later Zolotukhina wrote on her Facebook page that she had been interrogated by the SBU as a witness on 30 January. According to the journalist, the questioning lasted from 10.00 to 18.30.
“I have signed a non-disclosure agreement, so now I can’t say anything”, the journalist wrote.
The search and interrogation were linked to a criminal case on separatism brought against unidentified persons at Media Invest Group holding which publishes Vesti Newspaper and Vesti.Reporter Magazine. Many journalists and employees of the holding have been interrogated in connection to the case.
On 25 January a court in Baku sentenced journalist Fuad Gahramanli to 10 years in prison, Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety reported.
The case is related to the armed incident between religious group, Muslim Union Movement, and police officers in the village of Nardaran where six people died, including two police officers.
Fuad Gahramanli is not a member of the religious group but was accused of promoting them on Facebook, where he urged people not to abandon the MUM’s leader and to continue protesting, IRFS reported.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/
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31 Jan 17 | Azerbaijan, Belarus, Europe and Central Asia, France, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom
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Each week, Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project verifies threats, violations and limitations faced by the media throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries. Here are five recent reports that give us cause for concern.
Police detained Aleksandra Ageyeva, a correspondent for the media outlet Sota Vision, at a mass demonstration near the Russian Constitutional Court building on 24 January.
According to Ageyeva, she was detained while filming the detainment of a demonstrator who was protesting against the imprisonment of opposition human rights activist Ildar Dadin.
Dadin is the first Russian citizen to be convicted for a “repeated violation” under a new law on mass rallies and meetings by peacefully protesters. He is currently serving a two-and-a-half year prison sentence and claims that his captors repeatedly abuses him.
A total of four protesters were detained along with Ageyeva at the scene. The police explained that the demonstrators were detained because they were supposedly jaywalking. Ageyeva spent around 11 hours in police custody.
The General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus ruled to extradite Alexander Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli travel blogger to Azerbaijan, on 20 January.
On 15 December 2016 he was detained in Minsk on an extradition request from Azerbaijan, where he is wanted for visiting the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and for criticising Azerbaijani policies.
A criminal case under two articles of the criminal code was filed in Azerbaijan which, if convicted, can lead to a prison sentence from five to eight years.
Lisa Giachino, editor-in-chief of the environmental magazine L’âge de faire, was arrested on 20 January at the border with Italy in the Roya valley, as she was following migrants for a story, news website Basta reported.
She is believed to have been kept in custody since 5am for “assisting migrants at the border,” and because she does not have a press card the police have refused to believe she is a journalist.
According to Nice Matin newspaper, Giachino was following six migrants for the story.
Giachino was later freed. She told Libération: “[Police officers] told me: ‘If we see you again with migrants, careful!’ It’s not normal to tell this to a journalist.”
Oleksiy Bobrovnikov, an investigative journalist and special correspondent for TSN programme on 1+1 TV channel, publicly wrote on his Facebook on 10 January that he left Ukraine after receiving numerous threats.
Since 2015 Bobrovnikov has been investigating the fatal shooting of officers and volunteers who oppose smuggling along what is known as the “grey zone,” the dividing line between western Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Bobrovnikov confirmed to Mapping Media Freedom that he left the country in mid-December because he feared his life was in danger. He said he had received five warnings connected with his investigation telling him his life was in danger.
“The threats ranged from a pat on the shoulder to threats coming from people with weapons in their hands. Other people investigating trade with occupied territories also received similar threats,” Bobrovnikov wrote.
According to Ukrayinska Pravda, two individuals working to fight against the smuggling were killed on 2 September 2015, near Schastye, a town in the Luhansk region.
St Helens Council passed a motion on 18 January calling on retailers in the borough to stop selling daily newspaper The Sun, The St Helens Star reported.
The motion is not enforceable by law, but recommends retailers do not distribute the publication.
At the council meeting on Wednesday evening, Parr councillor Terry Shields asked the authority to support the Total Eclipse of The Sun campaign, which the paper’s controversial coverage of the Hillsborough disaster as a reason to boycott.
The campaign describes itself as a peaceful campaign group with more than 50,000 members.
Councillors approved the motion at the town hall. The three Conservative councillors abstained from the vote.
A spokeswoman says: “We have enjoyed great success now having over 240 establishments not selling the paper. This includes small newsagents, major supermarkets and petrol stations. Cafes, pubs, hotels and local hospitals, have also joined in, showing their support to the campaign.”[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/
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