Mayor of Tashkent scolded journalists and threatened to crack down
At once, several Uzbek online publications on the evening of November 16 distributed the audio recording with threats of Mayor of Tashkent Jahongir Artykhodzhaev addressed to journalists. On the record, he emotionally states “Who are they at all? They are stinkers! Are they human or beastly children? Unprincipled, dirty, poor fellows! Roosters, surrounded from everywhere, trying to disgrace everyone”.
The recording was made on August 15 during a failed mayor’s attempt to reconcile his employee with reporters of the online publication Kun.uz, after which J. Artykhodzhaev began to threaten. Acca.media previously wrote that the country’s Prosecutor General’s office even took control of the attack on journalists. But then the case was “hushed up” due to the lack of corpus delicti in the acts.
On November 13, a briefing was held in the Prosecutor’s office in Tashkent on the results of a threat check against the team of Kun.uz by the former deputy mayor of Almazar district, Abdurasul Vakhobov, who accused the correspondent Rakhmatulla Isroilov of trying to bribe. Information about bribes was not confirmed, the administration of Kun.uz was probably annoyed by the ardent desire of prosecutors to protect the official who was dismissed for assault. Therefore, the appearance of audio compromising evidence is logically explained by the desire of the publication to achieve justice, counting on the effect in networks and online publications. Representatives of political parties came out in defense of Kun.uz, the Prosecutor General’s office asked the Agency for Information and Mass Communications under the Presidential administration to respond to threats; the users raised a wave of indignation on the network, colleagues expressed solidarity in their publications.
The editor of Upl.uz Fakhrullo Hamidullaev even stated that “if Jahongir Artykhodzhaev is not fired, then I see no reason to work in the media. In this situation, the Agency for Information and Mass Communications will not be able to protect us, we need the protection of law enforcement agencies. A direct threat to journalists should be punished by relevant articles”.
It is noteworthy that in Uzbekistan there was practically no reaction to the extremely dirty abuse of Ravshan Komilov, the head of Mirishkor district of Kashkadarya region. The manager of the Uzbek-German forum, Umida Niyazova, is therefore skeptical about the possible risks for Artykhodzhaev’s career, “The mayor continues to work calmly. There were no public protests. Earlier, after the meeting under the leadership of the same mayor, the farmer Sherali Davronov hanged himself. This Middle Ages is actually the norm for Uzbek leaders who express as if they have just returned from a criminal gathering”.
In the interview with ACCA journalist, an employee of the registered publication bitterly noted that “there is a clear feeling that Uzbek journalism was once again raped, but this time in a very sophisticated way”.
The media noise has ended with a previously obvious result. On November 17, the mayor of Tashkent urgently convened the meeting with the administration of Kun.uz, as a result of which the parties announced that there were no complaints against each other. The incident was assessed as “a misunderstanding between the site team and the capital’s administration”.
Today it became known that Kun.uz journalist Zafarbek Solizhonov left the editorial office, publicly declaring that he is “not the beastly son” and “not the stinker”.
