Image by neweurasia's Schwartz (CC-usage).

Are the Roghun project and the lawsuit against three independent newspapers connected? Alpharabius, neweurasia‘s blogger covering the lawsuit, believes that the trial is at minimum peripherally connected to the dam controversy, not to mention the upcoming parliamentary elections. His sentiment is apparently echoed by much of the Tajik journalistic and human rights community.

I don’t know if that’s strong enough grounds to claim a conspiracy is afoot. However, the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) certainly believes that there is a concerted shadow campaign against all independent media in Tajikistan:

Aside from the flawed legislation, a new tendency is emerging in the lawsuits that have been brought against the country’s leading independent newspapers in the past few days. With just weeks to go to parliamentary elections [...] there is clearly an all-out drive to intimidate news media and get them to censor their coverage of state authorities.

Hmmmm well, interesting, not only print media is having problems. For example, according to Irada Guisenova, an analyst with the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, the independent news channels CMT and ORT recently discovered they are broadcasting on the same wavelength, interfering with each other.

Tolib Halls, the Chief Inspector of the Committee on Television, is investigating the “legality” of the situation to determine if either of the channels have violated any laws. In the meantime, both channels have temporarily ceased broadcasting. In light of the upcoming parliamentary elections, it does seem a bit too convenient, doesn’t it?

All told, you wouldn’t be crazy to think that at least some elements of the government are trying to clamp down independent media, using defamation laws and other technicalities to lend their efforts plausible deniability.  The big question is to what extent is the president involved — and whose side is he on?

President Emamolii Rahmon may be sanctioning the conspiracy behind closed doors, or, conversely, he is actually powerless to stop it.  He has frequently complained publicly about corruption in the government, and recently issued a decree that all public officials must respond to accusations raised by journalists.

Yet, he has also so far failed to intervene on behalf of the press.  The President thus appears oddly transcendent and remote.   There’s no denying, as Alpharabius notes, that at stake is Tajikistan’s prestige, and Rahmon must certainly be aware of that.   If for no other reason than that one, there’s only so long he can remain silent and unsullied in the clouds…