Translation of mursya’s post (RUS)

Once again, Reporters Without Borders (French: Reporters sans frontières), an international NGO advocating the right to free speech around the world, has released its annual Press Freedom Index. This year, Central Asia, which usually chalks up one of the planet’s worst records, has achieved its “best” results to date.

The degradation of free speech has caused Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to drop 15 points each compared to last year, leaving them in 142^nd and 125^th place, respectively. The regional gas giant has been engaged in a series of persecution campaigns against independent and opposition press, using notorious methods like exorbitant fines, which have led to a number of publications getting shut down.

Threats and violence are also part of the strategy. Additionally, lobbying has taken place in support of a law that would equate websites with traditional media, requiring them to exercise similar self-censorship – a measure that gave Kazakhstan the unenviable place it received in the Index’s first edition in 2002.

Developments in Kyrgyzstan have been worrying, too, with many journalists leaving the country after receiving death threats and observing the general rise of violence against their profession.

“An unhealthy climate has developed as a result of election campaign coverage, which was marked by low objectivity and considerable pressure put on western media. Before broadcasting, a radio had to obtain permission to do so,” RSF reports.

The most repressive states in the region are still Uzbekistan (160^th) and Turkmenistan (173^rd). These are countries where no serious changes have taken place, and where journalists are faced with censorship, lawlessness, and violence. The dialogue between these countries and the European Union has not produced anything in terms of human rights, and there is ample reason to fear that freedom of expression has been taken hostage by the race for energy security. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are rich in raw materials, particularly hydrocarbons.