This is the twelfth blogger and journalist subjected to illegal pressure from the security forces. On July 7, Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda was summoned to the department of the Organized Crime Control Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Vahdat and was subjected to intensive interrogation for several hours. They searched his house, seized his mobile phone, and took a receipt that he would not tell anyone the details of the interrogation, for what reason the phone was held, and the search was carried out.
After information about Pirmuhammadzoda appeared on Radio Ozodi and some other media on July 8, in the evening of the same day he was again called to the Organized Crime Control Department and no one saw him again. “They called, they said, come, pick up your phone. Abdusattor left and still hasn’t returned from there,” one of the journalist’s relatives told the media, “We were told that he gave a non-disclosure agreement, but Abdusattor still talked to Radio Ozodi. That’s why he was arrested.”
Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda previously worked at the Sadoi Dushanbe radio station. But even after leaving work, he continued to lead an active life on social networks, maintaining his blog. In November 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a video of Pirmuhammadzoda protesting against unemployment, heavy fines, and the authorities’ indifference to the plight of people provoked a strong reaction from users in Tajikistan. He gained a lot of followers, but two months ago, Pirmuhammadzoda announced that he was stopping his blog, as pro-government officials called him a “traitor to the nation” in the comments on his video. But after journalists and bloggers, Daleri Imomali and Abdullo Gurbati were detained, Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda could not stand it and released several videos supporting the arrested journalists.
On the same day, on July 8, another journalist and social media activist, Zavkibek Saidamini, was detained. Zavkibek Saidamini, 37, worked for many years as a journalist for independent publications and on the First Channel of Tajikistan’s state television. Even though Saidamini retired from journalism, he was one of the activists on social networks and constantly published his arguments and opinions on topical issues.
Saidamini, like Pirmuhammadzoda, supported the detainees Imomali and Gurbati, saying that he was seriously concerned about the fate of his colleagues.
One of Saidamini’s relatives told the media that Zavkibek and a classmate drove up to the car wash and were going to their native village of Kalai Nav near the town of Rogun. “Unknown people drove up to them in two cars and took them to the Vakhdat Organized Crime Control Department. A classmate was released at nine o’clock, and they told him to come in the morning, but Zavkibek remained there. They took a non-disclosure agreement from a classmate, and now he doesn’t talk to anyone at all,” one of Saidamini’s relatives told the media.
The power structures do not comment on the reasons for the detention of journalists and bloggers and do not respond to requests.
“The authorities have decided to seriously tighten the screws for everyone who has an opinion and is not afraid to speak openly about it. And above all, this concerns journalists, especially, as they say at the top, now is the most favorable moment for this: all the attention of the powerful of this world is turned to Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, and Western leaders are trying to win over the states of Central Asia to their side, and in such conditions, no one will talk about “some” bloggers and journalists in negotiations with the Tajik authorities,” says a representative of a human rights organization. “But journalism reflects public consciousness and shapes it, serves society, is a kind of mirror, looking into which, the authorities should see their shortcomings. And therefore, without honest and independent journalism, there can be no talk of an independent Tajikistan.”
