DUSHANBE, May 31, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law (BHR) of Tajikistan will launch the project, Promotion of International Standards on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, in June under financial support of the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe.

The project provides for opening legal offices in Dushanbe and Khujand that will make available free legal advice to representatives of media and journalists on defamation issues within the framework of the country’s civil law and criminal legislation, the source said.

“In some cases, lawyers will be provided for protection of violated rights of media and journalists in the law enforcement agencies and courts,” noted the source, “In case of identification of serious violations of freedom of speech, the BHR employees will prepare individual complaints to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.”

The BHR head Nargis Zokirova says the main objective of the project is in promoting decriminalization of defamation and insult laws “because the Penal Code’s articles criminalizing defamation and insult laws with regard to journalists considerably restricts freedom of speech in Tajikistan.”  “To implement this initiative, we plan to cooperate with our partners representing media organizations – Nansmit, NGO HOMA, Internews Network Tajikistan and others,” she stressed.

According to her, the situation regarding freedom of speech remains quite a complex in Tajikistan.  The most serious problems evoking concern of the journalist community and the human rights organization are criminal persecutions of journalists over critical reporting.  Such cases bring to rise in self-censorship among journalists and negatively impact the level of freedom of speech in the country, Zokirova noted.