On June 11, in the presence of numerous witnesses, journalists of the Uzbek TV channel Sevimli were attacked. It was first reported on Zamon news program, but then the post was deleted. The material in Uzbek was downloaded by the victims’ colleagues and spread on the social network; later the details of the incident became known in Russian.
Before the start of the match, employees of the internal affairs bodies refused to let the film crew of the TV channel into the capital’s stadium “Pakhtakor”. They were accredited to cover the match between the national teams of Uzbekistan and Iraq in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup U-23, but this fact didn’t convince people in uniform. To the fair demands for admission, the answer was: “We don’t care that you are the representatives of the press. We are doing our job.” Then the cameraman began filming the fans who missed the game, which infuriated the officers. They attacked the journalists, tied their arms and threw them to the ground, while taking away the equipment and the pass.
My operator screamed from the blow, lying on the ground. Six or seven police officers and one member of the National Guard beat him. One of them hit him on the leg with a baton. The rest were kicked him in the stomach and head. “My hands were tied, I was helpless, I could only scream for help,” the journalist said. The operator then specified the details of the attack. During the beating, a stun gun was used against him twice.
Then the journalists were forcibly brought to the Department of Internal Affairs of Shaykhantakhur district of Tashkent, from where the operator was taken away by an ambulance. After that, one of the officers reluctantly apologized to the journalists and demanded not to talk too much.
The Agency for Information and Mass Communications under the President emphasized neutrally about sending a request to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Guard, urging ‘public servants of all levels to respect the information legislation and the powers of journalists’.
The information on the social network doesn’t contain data on the composition of the film crew. However, in the response to the incident, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs refers to the cameraman T. Ibrokhimov. The text also states that the operator of Sevimli was injured as a result of a brawl in the crowd trying to enter the stadium. “Citizens, who violated public order, are being identified.” The press release ignored the throwing of concrete pieces towards the players and representatives of other film crews during the game by the fans. One foreign photographer was taken away on a stretcher.
The same confusion from the actions of its employees is observed in the reaction of the Department to the attack on a journalist of Human.uz on the morning of June 13 by an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He took away the phone from a journalist filming a sugar trade in a public place under the pretext of buyers objecting to filming.
Human.uz responded to the post of press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As noted, the law enforcement officer took away the phone from the journalist at the start of filming. At the same time, it’s specified that not a single citizen turned to the law enforcement officer with a request to withdraw the phone or protest against the shooting.
