Status: Not Free
Legal Environment: 29 (of 30)
Political Environment: 38 (of 40)
Economic Environment: 25 (of 30)
Total Score: 92 (of 100)
(Lower scores = freer)

The aftermath of government clampdowns in 2005-2006 left an already barren media landscape even more desolate in 2007. Despite nominal constitutional guarantees, Uzbek authorities showed no respect for freedom of speech or of the press. Uzbek law limits political criticism, and public insult of the president is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison After a new media resolution tightening controls in 2006, President Islam Karimov in January signed legislation holding media accountable for their "objectivity" and defining websites as media outlets.

After domestic unrest in 2005, the Uzbek authorities undertook a concerted campaign against foreign-funded media, and in 2007 the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Voice of America remained unable to broadcast from within Uzbekistan. Deutsche Welle correspondents in Uzbekistan experienced harassment in 2007. Correspondent Natalya Bushuyeva fled the country after the authorities filed tax evasion and other charges against her that could have led to a three-year prison sentence. In April, prosecutors filed charges against three other Deutsche Welle correspondents, although those charges were later dropped. In October, Sid Yanyshev, a reporter for the UK-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, was attacked by unidentified individuals.

State-controlled Uzbek media mounted a coordinated smear campaign against Alisher Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek and Kyrgyz citizen who ran an Uzbek-language newspaper in southern Kyrgyzstan that was critical of President Islam Karimov. The campaign described Saipov as a Western stooge and traitor. Shortly thereafter, Saipov was shot do death in Osh, Kyrgyzstan in October, although no direct evidence has emerged to support suspicions of possible Uzbek involvement in the killing.

In two particularly disturbing developments, an accused rights activist and journalist was released from jail after a public confession, and an independent journalist remained confined in a psychiatric hospital. Umida Niyazova, a human rights activist and independent journalist, was arrested in January and charged with transporting contraband. She was convicted in May, sentenced to a seven-year prison term, and subsequently freed, but only after she blamed international organizations for her plight. The incident took on a dark light in view of past evidence of coerced confessions in the Uzbek justice system. Meanwhile, Jamshid Karimov, an independent journalist and nephew of the president, was one of five journalists who remained jailed in 2007. Karimov was confined to a psychiatric hospital in September 2006; he remained confined in 2007 amid reports that his health was deteriorating.

The government in 2007 continued to control national dailies and television stations, as well as publishing houses or printing presses. Virtually all media were linked either directly or indirectly to the state, and the government used them to present a carefully constructed picture of an ideal reality, with occasional forays into limited criticism. The closure in July of Odam Orasida, an Islamic-oriented weekly in Tashkent, may have been linked to its willingness to write about such taboo issues as prostitution and homosexuality, although other reports suggested that the authorities decided to close it when its circulation rose to 24,000 and its popularity began to outpace that of staid official publications.

The Uzbek authorities also appeared to step up their efforts to crack down on freedom of speech in the internet. While exiled Uzbek journalists were able to operate news sites from abroad with a focus on rights issues, reports pointed to increased blocking of opposition and independent websites in the lead-up to a December presidential election that saw President Karimov reelected easily to a constitutionally dubious third term. Blocking efforts extended beyond websites with materials critical of the government to proxies and anonymizers, further hampering access to outside points of view. Although some estimates of the number of Uzbek internet users ranged as high as 2 million (roughly 6% of the population), many of them accessed the web in institutional settings where state controls and the possibility of surveillance meant that they were unlikely to obtain sorely needed independent perspectives on events in Uzbekistan.

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