Wednesday, May 18, 2005
News Blackout Imposed On Bloody Protests
Source: IFEX.org As reports emerge about the killing last weekend of hundreds of protesters in Uzbekistan's northeastern city of Andijan, IFEX members say authorities are maintaining an information blockade by expelling journalists from the town and obstructing foreign television news broadcasts.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports several incidents in which foreign journalists have been harassed by authorities. On 14 May 2005, crews from Russia's Ren TV and NTV were briefly detained as they tried to enter Andijan. Police barred them from reporting in the city and ordered them to leave.
Correspondents for Reuters and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) were briefly detained by police on 13 May and left Andijan the next day, fearing retaliation by Uzbek security services.
As of 16 May, foreign television channels, including BBC and CNN, remained inaccessible in Uzbekistan, and Russian television stations were unable to transmit news programmes into the country. Uzbek state television has broadcast only brief official statements about the situation, without video footage.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) says no journalist has been able to report from Andijan since 14 May.
Freedom House has called on Uzbek authorities to allow international media, UN officials and human rights monitors into Andijan to verify reports that hundreds of people were shot and killed by security forces on 13 May 2005. The government has denied that security forces killed civilians.
# posted by ATN @ 4:49 PM 
