WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 468, 21 October, 2006 MEDIA FREEDOM WORRIES IN KYRGYZSTAN Attack on the major independent TV station creates a sense of unease about the government's view of media rights. By Taalaibek Amanov in Bishkek
DIVORCE SYSTEM WORKS AGAINST UZBEK WOMEN Laws give women equal rights, but state institutions work to prevent them getting a divorce. By IWPR staff in London **** NEW AT IWPR ****************************************************************** IWPR LAUNCHES CENTRAL ASIAN NEWS AGENCY: News Briefing Central Asia is a new concept in regional reporting, comprising analysis and "news behind the news" in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Available at: www.NBCentralAsia.net **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/rca/rss.xml TURKMEN RADIO: INSIDE VIEW is an IWPR radio training and broadcast project for Turkmenistan. View at: http://www.iwpr.net/?p=trk&s=p&o=-&apc_state=henh RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of free electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** MEDIA FREEDOM WORRIES IN KYRGYZSTAN Attack on the major independent TV station creates a sense of unease about the government's view of media rights. By Taalaibek Amanov in Bishkek The opposition in Kyrgyzstan is pressing the government to investigate a recent arson attack which put the country's only independent nationwide television broadcaster out of action. The incident highlights continuing concerns about how committed the administration of President Kurmanbek Bakiev is to freedom of speech The attack on Piramida TV took place overnight on September 27 to 28, when unidentified assailants beat up two technicians and torched transmission facilities, located remotely from the station itself just outside the capital Bishkek. No one believed it a coincidence that the broadcast equipment, worth 200,000 US dollars, had only just been installed, after the station had been off the air for more than a month. The attack took place ten hours after broadcasting resumed. Equipment belonging to other TV companies on the same site was left untouched, according to Adylbek Biynazarov, Piramida's president. Oleg Vassil, the vice-president of Piramida, told IWPR that the station had been out of operation since August 17, due to the theft of some transmission technology. In the latest incident, he said, "Everything has been burnt and we have nothing left - we have sent the equipment away to be repaired." The incident has left journalists and human rights groups worried that the Bakiev government is not living up to the hopes invested in it by the people who brought it to power in March 2005, when a wave of popular revolts drove President Askar Akaev to leave the country. At the time, the new administration was expected to implement swift democratic and economic reforms. "Piramida, with its independent, honest perspective on domestic current affairs is like a thorn in the government's flesh," said Asiya Sasykbaeva, head of the Interbilim group. "The technical problems it suffered even before this latest incident can be seen as an attempt to curtail freedom of speech." One of the founders of the Piramida channel, Bekjan Derbishev, suggested things were now worse than when Akaev was in charge. "Under Akaev there were similar attacks on the channel, but they were relatively civilised - these new ones are more thuggish. One begins to remember the Akaev days as a golden age, because the people who are in power now are completely out of control. "Pyramid was the only independent TV channel left in Kyrgyzstan, and a decision has been taken to destroy it physically. The regime will use any means possible to eliminate the channel so as to extend its own influence over the public." According to Edil Baisalov of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, "Piramida's owners are being pressured so that the television company will cave in and change its editorial policy." The head of Bakiev's press office, Dosaly Esenaliev, denies the regime is involved in any way. "This incident needs to be investigated by the appropriate law-enforcement agencies. I see no political motive. I know they've always had technical problems, and this needs to be clarified," he said. Police told IWPR that they are currently carrying out an investigation. The opposition, largely consisting of former Bakiev allies who are disillusioned with his policies, has now joined the fray. In an October 10 statement issued jointly with Piramida staff, the Movement for Reforms - an umbrella group of political parties and non-government groups - launched a broadside on the regime, speaking of a campaign of terror against the TV station. "Takeover attempts, robberies, arson and threats directed against the independent media have become the new government's calling card," said the statement. "This has done irreparable damage to Kyrgyzstan's image as a democracy." The Movement for Reforms held a demonstration outside the Kyrgyz government building on October 11, and later had a meeting with Prime Minister Felix Kulov, who promised to investigate the Piramida attack. The Ata-Meken party earlier issued its own statement accusing the government of pressuring independent press, television and radio outlets over the last year. "The regime has not baulked at anything in order to curb free speech on the NTS and KOORT television channels, and at newspapers including Vecherny Bishkek," said the party. The NTS channel has been confined to broadcasting its TV programmes to Bishkek and the Chuy valley since the authorities stopped its re-broadcasts in the south of the country in May, arguing that they needed the transmitters for a new state channel in Osh. The other two cases are less about independence than about how the new regime has gained the loyalty of media that used to serve Akaev. KOORT was a pro-Akaev station, but in the last year new managers have been put to ensure it supports the new regime instead. The Vecherny Bishkek newspaper has changed hands so that it too is a pro-government voice. Piramida has had continual problems over the last year. In December 2005, staff mounted a protest outside parliament, taping over their mouths to symbolise attempts to silence them. The demonstration followed reports of a hostile takeover bid by figures close to the Bakiev administration. At the TV station, the 120 staff are left with nothing to do. "As staunch supporters of the channel, we come in to work every day and cover important political events, but we don't go out on air," said news editor Tilek Bektenov. "You get the feeling that they simply want to force us to resign by depriving us of our salaries, and then they will turn Piramida into an entertainment channel." Taalaibek Amanov is the pseudonym of an independent journalist in Bishkek. DIVORCE SYSTEM WORKS AGAINST UZBEK WOMEN Laws give women equal rights, but state institutions work to prevent them getting a divorce. By IWPR staff in London Although the law gives women in Uzbekistan the right to divorce their husbands, many find it almost impossible since the system is weighted against them and the government does its best to hold families together, whatever the wife may want. Despite the growth in overt Muslim observance and Uzbek traditional customs since independence in 1991, the state has retained Soviet legislation guaranteeing equal rights for women, and the government has policies to promote women in work. Legal marriage is governed by secular state institutions rather than the clergy, and women have full property and divorce rights. While these safeguards look good in the law books, in practice things are very different. Strong social conventions make it difficult for women to complain about domestic abuse, and the ultimate step of divorce is discouraged by local community or "mahalla" councils and by the judicial system. Adolat, a nurse in Andijan in the eastern Fergana Valley, recalled how she has spent months trying to secure a divorce with no success, "I decided to divorce my husband when I realised I couldn't stay in his home any more, out of fear for the lives of my children. "He used to assault me when he was drunk. Like many women in our society, I thought I had to put up with it, and that as time went by he would stop. But when my children were born, he started to take out his aggression on them.... Then I decided to leave home and divorce him. "I needed an official divorce, as then my ex-husband would have to provide me with accommodation and pay alimony. But for a year now I have been living in a rented apartment, unable to get a divorce. The court postponed the hearing for six months, as I didn't provide a certificate from the reconciliation commission of the mahalla committee." "Reconciliation commissions", established by the government in 1999, form part of the mahalla committees, which in theory are independent neighbourhood associations but in reality operate as the lowest rung of local government - and as instruments of social control. A member of one Andijan reconciliation commission insists they fulfil a positive role, "We have century-old traditions according to which the mahalla plays an active role in bringing up children and resolving conflicts between neighbours and even between family members. But a women's rights activist in the same city sees them as an obstacle to progress. "The mahalla, or rather its component reconciliation commission, is one of the main hindrances towards realising a woman's right to divorce," she said. The activist explained that before an application to dissolve a civil marriage can go to court, the reconciliation committee reviews the case and tries to bring the couple back together. The women's committee attached to the mayor's office may also intervene. "The mahalla committees usually try to preserve the family at all costs, even if one or both partners believe that all possible reasons for doing so have been exhausted. And often this is not out of a desire to save the family, but to maintain good divorce statistics in the mahalla," said the women's activist, who explained that the local committees come under pressure both from local government and from a central body called the Mahalla Foundation if divorce is seen to be on the increase. Aside from the ingrained desire of government institutions to obey their superiors and fulfil social objectives as if they were economic plans, the authorities' hostility to divorce mirrors the strong societal conservatism in Uzbekistan. Even the country's code of family law contains a stipulation that court decisions must strive to preserve the family. A court can postpone a divorce hearing for six months if it feels the grounds offered are inadequate, and it can inform the mahalla committee or the official women's committee of its decision. But as a lawyer in Namangan, another city in the Fergana Valley, noted, "Nowhere is it stated that courts cannot accept a divorce claim without a form from the mahalla committee. The courts are secretly using this to delay the progress of divorce cases." Because married women generally live in their husbands' family home, economic factors make it difficult for them to strike out on their own, and until they get a divorce they are not entitled to anything from an estranged husband. "It's hard to feed two children and pay the rent on a nurse's salary, which is 40,000 sums (32 US dollars)," said Adolat. "My husband knows about my difficulties but doesn't even try to help his children." A member of the women's committee for Namangan said the divorce rate was rising both because of economic hardship, and because more women were rebelling against the constraints of a traditional marriage. "On the one hand it is caused by the families' economic situation - arguments frequently arise because the husband cannot provide for the family, or the women is forced to earn the bulk of the income," she said. "Another factor is the crisis in traditional family life. An increasing number of women realise that they are not obliged to put up with patriarchal family system, and men cannot accept this." When Adolat's husband came round and caused a scene outside her apartment recently, she called the police. But after they found out the couple were married, the officers just gave her husband a mild ticking off. "They advised him not to treat his family badly, and left without doing anything. I went to my lawyer, but she replied that until I get a divorce, I will continue to suffer," she said. (Names have been withheld or changed because of concerns for the safety of interviewees.) **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central Asia on a weekly basis. The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and encourages better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Reporting Central Asia is supported by the UK Community Fund. The service is published online in English and Russian. The opinions expressed in Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. 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