ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS, BLOGGERS AND MEDIA WORKERS IN CENTRAL ASIA AND AZERBAIJAN 2017-2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 AUTHORS OF THE REPORT 3 About the jFj foundAiton 4 INTROdUCTiOn 8 AZERbAijAn 17 KAZAKHSTAN 26 KYRGYZSTAn 33 TAJIKiSTAN 40 TURKMENISTAn 47 UZbEKistan 55 aNNEX OnE 56 ANNEX TwO 57 ANNEX three 58 aNNEX four 59 aNNEX FivE 60 aNNEX SiX 61 aNNEX sevEn AUTHORS OF THE REPORT • Azerbaijan: Khaled Aghaly Lawyer and specialist in media law in Azerbaijan. Aghaly has been working in the field of media law in Azerbaijan since 2002. He is one of the founders of the Media Rights Institute (MRİ Azer- baijan). The Media Rights Institute was forced to suspend its activities in 2014. Since then, Agaliev has been working individually. He is the author of more than 10 reports and studies on the state of media rights in Azerbaijan. • Kazakhstan: International Foundation for protection of freedom of speech “Adil Soz“ Major priority of International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz” is establishment of open civil society over the statement in daily life of the country free, objective and progressive journalism. The main activity of the Foundation is monitoring of violations of freedom of speech, legal activity, educational activity and legal help to journalists and mass media. • Kyrgyzstan: School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia School of Peacemaking and Media Technology is a nonprofit media development organization encouraging freedom of expression, diversity, researches and training on media issues based in Bishkek. • Tajikistan: Partner, who preferred to stay anonymous • Turkmenistan: Ruslan Myatiev, Turkmen.news Turkmen journalist, human rights advocate, and editor of the news and human rights portal Turkmen.news, one of the few independent resources devoted to Turkmenistan. The turkmen. news organisation was founded in 2010 and is based in The Netherlands. More detail is available here. Myatiev often appears in the media and at various international events as an invited Turkmen expert on socio-economic, political, and human rights topics. Ruslan is likewise an expert on Turkmenistan for the Justice for Journalists Foundation. • Uzbekistan: Sergei Naumov Freelance journalist for major media outlets – Fergana.ru (Russia) and IWPR (UK). From 2008 to 2017 he authored several reports for international organisations and regional online forums on the state of freedom of speech, expression and the press in Uzbekistan. He is an active participant in the country’s activist movement. From 2007 to the present day he has been monitoring the use of child labour on cotton plantations, creating human rights content, and participating in the research projects of European human rights organisations. Naumov has been a volunteer at the School of Peacekeeping and Media Technology in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) since 2014. • Photographers Madina Alihmanova (Kazakhstan), Meydan TV (Azerbaijan) and kaktus.media (Kyrgyzstan). 2 ustice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ) is a London-based non-governmental organization. The foundation was created in August 2018 by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of the Open Russia pro-democracy movement, an Amnesty International-recognised prisoner of conscience, and JPutin’s most prominent critic, together with his former business partner, philanthropist and member of the Free Russia Forum’s standing committee Leonid Nevzlin. JFJ funds journalistic investigations into violent crimes against media workers and helps professional and citizen journalists to mitigate their risks. Our mission is to facilitate journalists’ access to existing resources and make them relevant to the specifics of each region. We believe security is the essential basis for work in the media. We help journalists acquire the skills and knowledge to address their professional challenges. JFJ’s activity consists of three main components: ӹ Grants for investigating violent crimes against media workers; ӹ Risk mapping via monitoring, analysing and publicising attacks against media workers; ӹ Risk management and prevention by organising security and safety trainings for non-English speaking media workers in our Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy. JFJ cooperates with international media workers and press freedom activists, human rights and educational organisations, and think-tanks on media security issues and investigations into crimes against journalists. 3 INTRODUCTION his report forms part of an extensive study on attacks against journalists, bloggers, and media workers covering 12 post-Soviet Tcountries. This section of the study is devoted to Azerbaijan and the five Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The research is being conducted by the Justice for Journalists Foundation in conjunction with partners from the indicated countries. 4 METHODOLOGY he data for the study have been obtained from open sources in the Russian, English, and official state languages using the method of content analysis. Lists of the main sources are presented in Annexes 2 — 7. Besides that, in the countries in which information is the most Tdifficult to obtain due to their closed nature – Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — material that has previously not been made public and was obtained using the expert interview method was likewise used for the analysis. Expert interviews with journalists and their lawyers were likewise used in compiling the report on Azerbaijan. Based on further analysis of 1,464 attacks perpetrated against professional and citizen journalists, bloggers and other media workers, three main types of attack were identified: 1. Physical attacks and threats to life, liberty and health. 2. Non-physical and/or cyber-attacks and threats. 3. Attacks via judicial or economic means. Each of the types of attacks presented is further divided into sub-categories, a complete list of which is presented in Annex 1. PRINCIPAL TRENDS he population of the region in the period covered in this study numbers almost 84.5 million people, approximately equal to the population of such countries as Germany, Iran, or Turkey. In order to make a valid comparison of the number of incidents in these countries, it would Tbe advisable to look at not the absolute numbers of attacks, but at the relative figures, per 100 thousand people. Source for population statistics: www.worldometers.info As paradoxical as this may seem, the high indicators for the numbers of attacks in countries such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan speak not so much to the brutality of the environment in which media workers are forced to work as to the relative freedom of speech in these countries. Thus, in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — where according to the available data media workers are hardly ever subjected to attacks — such incidents simply do not receive any publicity by virtue of a practically complete information vacuum. In Turkmenistan – the most closed of these countries in the informational regard (in 2019 it held last place, 180th, in the Reporters Without Borders NGO’s annual rankings) — it is practically impossible to work as a journalist. Information about what is happening in the country is reported to media beyond the border by “people’s correspondents”. They send photos and videos at the risk 5 of being caught by the high-cost national tracking system that embraces the entire country. The relevant section of this study should give some idea of the dangers faced by those people who are still trying to get the truth about what is happening in Turkmenistan to the world. All six countries except Uzbekistan show an increase in the absolute number of attacks in 2019 as compared with 2017. Attacks via judicial means (above all short-term detentions, arrests, and the opening of administrative and criminal cases) predominate in the region covered in this study. The main source of threats for media workers are representatives of the authorities. The number of attacks of this type has increased over three years in four of the countries, but it declined in Kyrgyzstan and remained largely constant in Uzbekistan. Azerbaijan leads by a wide margin in terms of the number of physical attacks – 26 such incidents became known just last year alone. Brutal beatings of journalists during short-term detentions and even abductions of journalists with subsequent removal from other countries are characteristic of this country. Kazakhstan ranks first in attacks via judicial and/or economic means. On average, more than 50 cases are initiated inKazakhstan each year against media workers on charges of libel, insult, and reputational damage. 30-40 incidents per year reach trial; a fine is awarded in half of the instances, while a third result in a prison term. Non-physical attacks are likewise widespread in Kazakhstan, including harassment, intimidation, damage to/seizure of property and documents, and breaking into equipment and online accounts. Tajikistan leads the region in the number of media workers charged with extremism, links with terrorists, and inciting hate. Persecution of family members of journalists, their harassment, interrogations, short-term detentions, and even arrests are likewise characteristic of Tajikistan. The character of attacks perpetrated against journalists in Kyrgyzstan has shifted towards a manifold increase in online threats, via DDoS and hacker attacks on online media outlets. THE RELEVANCE OF THIS STUDY espite the relative informational isolation of the Central Asian countries, the global community