DUSHANBE, February 16, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Attacks on the Press , a yearly survey released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on February 15, says global and regional institutions with a responsibility to guard press freedom are largely failing to fulfill their mandate as journalists worldwide continue to face threats, imprisonment, intimidation, and killings. 

“While international law guarantees the right to free expression, journalists cannot count on a robust defense of those rights,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “The recent unprecedented repression and persecution of journalists in Egypt, for example, provides an important opportunity for global and regional institutions to speak and act forcefully in defense of a free press.”

Attacks on the Press is the world''s most comprehensive guide to international press freedom, with thorough analyses of the key factors that obstruct a free press by CPJ’s regional experts. It includes a special feature on the invisible nature of online attacks meant to curb journalists, including online surveillance, malicious software, and the elimination of news sites from the Internet.

“Journalists in the authoritarian states of the former Soviet bloc continue to face physical attacks, bureaucratic harassment, politicized legal prosecution and imprisonment simply for doing their job,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said.

The CPJ survey for 2010 notes that according to news reports, three Tajik judges filed a defamation complaint against the independent weeklies Farazh , Ozodagon , and Asia-Plus in January 2010.  The complaint sought 5.5 million somoni (about US$1.2 million) in damages against each.  Umed Babakhanov, Asia-Plus '' chief editor, told CPJ that the newspapers had covered a press conference at which a local lawyer condemned the recent convictions of his clients.  The papers reported comments by the lawyer, Solehjon Jurayev, who said his defendants'' rights were violated and that the verdict was unfair, Babakhanov said.  The case was pending in late year.

In September, Tajik authorities blocked domestic access to several independent news websites and pressured local printing houses to withhold services to critical newspapers, according to the news website Ferghana and the Dushanbe-based National Association of Independent Mass Media in Tajikistan (Nansmit).  The wave of repression followed a series of critical reports about the Defense Ministry, which were published by the Dushanbe-based newspapers Farazh , Ozodagon , Nigoh , Millat , and Paykon , and news websites Asia-Plus , Avesta , Tjknews , Centrasia , and Ferghana . The outlets accused the ministry of botching a September counterinsurgency operation against a militant group in eastern Tajikistan.  At least 28 soldiers were killed during the operation, according to local press reports. Defense Minister Sherali Khairulloyev accused the outlets of assisting terrorists, local and international press reported.

Government obstruction continued in late year.  Authorities in the northern Sughd province arrested Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter for the Dushanbe-based weekly Nouri Zindagi , in November.  Regional news outlets first reported the arrest in December.  Nansmit said Ismoilov was charged with criminal defamation and insult through the media, charges that could bring up to two and a half years in prison.  The journalist had criticized the regional government, law enforcement agencies, and the judiciary for alleged management policy-making failures. Ismoilov was being held in late year at a detention facility in Khujand.