Uzbek authorities closed Togri.uz website
On October 14, the website Togri.uz became unavailable to users. According to one version, the resource is closed due to financial difficulties. The owner of Network True Press LLC Nodir Ibragimov noted this in the interview with the journalist of the Uzbek service of radio “Svoboda”. However, the journalist Khurshid Yuldashev refuted this statement by posting on a social network “Togri.uz worked well and was closed for good work. Winter is coming, friends!”
The most real reason for the closure of the site was articles about the level of competence of the authorities of Tashkent, the Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan and the Central Bank. A nervous reaction of the Ministry of Health was caused by information about the quality of medicines. Due to the anger of senior officials on October 2, the publication about the visit of the Chairman of the Council of the Federation of Russia Valentina Matvienko was deleted.
The main “offence” of the publication, which worked less than six months, was the published photo of Saida Mirziyoeva, the daughter of the President. Komil Allamjonov, the director of the Information and Mass Communications Agency (IMCA), whose deputy is Saida, was outraged by “unattractive” picture.
The ACCA has already noted that Uzbekistan’s media is suspicious of a recent law in draft on administrative sanctions for obstructing the activities of journalists and bloggers. IMCA took this initiative in a published draft law. The document was developed for a long time and now the media of Uzbekistan stiffen in waiting for a trick. The experience of independent Uzbekistan shows that no one should expect anything good from the good intentions of the authorities. Not much time has passed. Recently, the head of IMCA Komil Allamjonov promised to protect the writing brothers, but then he spoke more specifically “Everyone cleans at own house, otherwise he will be responsible for the “stench” if it causes inconvenience to neighbors”.
This is the second reason for the team of journalists to stop working. Last year, special services forced Turon24.uz website to be closed. K. Allamjonov himself fell under their pressure. Prior to this, he provided patronage to colleagues who worked for him in various media structures. Now he is called the main persecutor of Togri.uz, which was created by Turon24.uz journalists.
The head of IMCA emphasized in his interview that “much more needs to be done to make journalists feeling free, even if they are now mistaken or misbehaving. Let them make mistakes, we will not pinch them, so as not to interfere with the development of journalism. But later, we will definitely lay down the rules of the game…”
