Since Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev came to power in late 2016, he has often exhorted journalists to draw attention to corruption and other problems in the country. Mirziyoev has promised he would “stand behind” journalists and media outlets. However, the Uzbek president has been nowhere in sight recently as bloggers in the country have been arrested and given long prison sentences in some cases longer sentences than people in Uzbekistan convicted for violent crimes receive. Joining host Bruce Pannier to discuss are guests Umida Niyazova, director at the Germany-based Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, and Steve Swerdlow, a rights lawyer with many years of experience in Central Asia who is currently an associate professor of the practice of human rights at the University of Southern California.
When Shavkat Mirziyoev became Uzbekistan's president in late 2016, he promised that the "old ways" of governing the country were over, and that he would lift restrictions on the media. He even encouraged journalists to report on issues that needed correcting in society and in governance. The Uzbek Forum for Human Rights recently released a report, The President's Broken Promises Put Journalists and Bloggers At Risk, that looks at some of the cases of journalists and bloggers who ran afoul of the authorities for their reporting in the "new" Uzbekistan. Joining host Bruce Pannier are Umida Niyazova, director at the Germany-based Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, and Matthew Schaaf, the advocacy director at the Washington-based organization Freedom Now.