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Central Europe
May 4, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
However, it also notes: “To judge by the accounts of former [journalist] detainees, torture is still being used. Official criticism of the former repres- sive apparatus has begun to loosen some taboos. Leading independent news websites such as Ferghana and Radio Ozodlik are still blocked in Uzbekistan.”
At 149th (the same as in the last ranking), Tajik- istan is faced by “President Emomali Rakhmon [who] increasingly indulges his authoritarian ten- dencies which threaten the fragile national con- sensus constructed over the ashes of a civil war that ravaged the country from 1992 to 1997”, the report says. On the pretext of combating terror- ism, the government has reduced the media dras- tically and has eliminated the political opposition. Telephone calls from intelligence officers, inter- rogation sessions, intimidation, and blackmail are now all part of the daily fare of independent jour- nalists who have been hit hard by the economic crisis. Surveillance of communications is getting more sophisticated, while the blocking of the main
news websites and social networks is virtually permanent,” the report adds.
Finally, further east, in Mongolia (down two to 71st) “TV channels replaced their normal pro- gramming with blank screens on April 26, 2017
in protest of plans to increase the penalties for defamation ahead of a presidential election,” the report notes, adding: “More than half of the defa- mation cases in Mongolia are brought against journalists and media outlets, pushing them to censor themselves. The overall environment for the media has improved in recent years, espe- cially as a result of the state media’s transforma- tion from government mouthpieces into a public service. But media ownership is very concentrated and most media are affiliated with political par- ties, holding back the emergence of independ- ent media. Whether state or privately-owned, the media are under pressure from politicians, and their ability to act as a watchdog is limited by the government’s lack of transparency and its sus- ceptibility to criticism.”
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