Uzbekistan: authorities continue to discredit journalists
Journalists of the Hook.report website published an article about the summons of the blogger Miraziz Bazarov to the State Security Service, after which were recorded the attempts to discredit them. On July 30, on behalf of employees of the independent publication advertisements about the provision of sex services appeared on the Internet.
Simultaneously, editor Darina Solod and Vlad Avdeev became the targets of attacks, then information about Miraziz Bazarov appeared on the same site.
As ACCA previously posted, on July 28, Bazarov and his lawyer Sergei Mayorov were not allowed into the building of the State Security Service for an hour, then they were denied a meeting with the investigator. The incident showed that Miraziz is now under surveillance of the special services. It is the Uzbek security officers who are suspected of organizing the provocation. In his articles, Bazarov appealed to the management of the IMF and ADB not to provide loans to the government of Uzbekistan, since there is no guarantee of their intended use.
Journalists and the blogger were surprised at such a rough and dirty work of their haters. Darina noted in a comment on the social network that “previously the State Security Service broke off their fingers in basements, now they publish your numbers on sex dating sites …”.
In fact, the Uzbek special services have been using this technique with a sexual connotation in the fight against dissent for a long time. In 2006, Natalya Bushueva and Obid Shabanov, Deutsche Welle correspondents, were persecuted in a similar information attack. Reputable materials about the private life of independent journalist Aleksei Volosevich were published by websites run by the special services as punishment for reporting on the 2005 events in Andijan. Spreading rumors about his colleagues’ gay orientation was common practice at the time.
In the modern history of the country’s media, discrediting technologies still remain in demand. In November 2019, an audio recording was circulated on social networks, in which the mayor of Tashkent, Jakhongir Artykhodjaev, threatened journalists with the following words: “Who are they? They are creatures! Are they human children or dogs? Unprincipled, dirty, poor fellows! Roosters, they will surround you from everywhere, trying to disgrace everyone … What, is it difficult for me to declare you gay? It’s easy! Easy! Freedom of speech! In six seconds I will put you in the same taxi with a gay man, and that’s it! They’ll take pictures and they pronounce you a gay. ”
The persecution of freedom of speech in Uzbekistan is now exacerbated not only by the blocking of inappropriate content on the web. There is a danger of pressure on the media community in connection with the appointment of Asadzhon Khodjaev on July 29 to the post of director of the Agency for Information and Mass Communications under the presidential administration. The post of director remained vacant after Komil Allamzhonov left in January of this year, together with the deputy director Saida Mirziyoyeva, the president’s daughter, to the Public Fund for Support and Development of National Mass Media.
Mr. Khodzhaev held positions of responsibility under former President Karimov, where he directly or indirectly controlled the media.
