The editors of the online media “Kun.uz” announced regular interference in editorial policy and coercion to delete materials. The most active in pressing journalists is the State Security Service.
In recent years, at least once a week, the editorial office has received protests about some materials and instructions to change or delete them completely.
In addition to the security forces, government agencies also exert pressure on media. Director of the Agency for Information and Mass Communications under the Presidential Administration Asadjon Khodjaev accused three online media of bias and warned of “serious legal consequences”.
He mentioned them in the letter addressed to the editorial office of Kun.uz. The reason for the threats was the publication of critical posts from social networks on the media’s website about problems with electricity and natural gas in Uzbekistan. The materials didn’t mention the Cabinet of Ministers, but the head of the Agency for Information and Mass Communications saw in the text “an accusation to the government of Uzbekistan of committing a crime against the population”.
Earlier, ACCA wrote about the deterioration of Uzbekistan’s position in the press freedom rating. For the first time in recent years, the country dropped one position down, ranking 157 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index of 2021. Reporters sans frontières predicts that Uzbekistan will fall into “the black zone” below the 160th place.
In 2018, the authorities managed to change the situation, having risen from 169 to 165, already reaching 160 in 2019. The RSF’s report notes that “it will be difficult to restore freedom of the press without political pluralism and justice for crimes committed by the dictatorship”.
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