From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of journalists who have been killed in Tajikistan or journalists
from Tajikistan killed outside of the country since 1990. Listees
include those known to have been murdered, as well as cases of suspicious
deaths.
History
From 1990-2001 Tajikistan was one of the most dangerous
countries in the world for journalists. Estimates for the number of
journalists killed number from fifty to eighty.[1]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, journalism in Tajikistan
underwent a transformation as the Soviet Union liberalized under glasnost and perestroika.
Journalists in both private and state-run media were permitted
greater editorial and investigative freedoms to report on issues
and to challenge government propaganda. But journalists ran into danger
when they publicly confronted powerful interests or reported on
violent events. The first journalistic death in Tajikistan occurred
on 12 February 1990 when a sniper in a government building opened
fire on demonstrators in Dushanbe, killing a number of individuals,
including a Lenfilm employee
filming the events from his hotel. Following the events of February
1990, the government placed pressure on editors to fire dozens of
journalists working for local television stations, radio stations and newspapers.[2]
Journalists continued to face official harassment through the
fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of Tajikistan in
1991.[3]
In mid-1992 the Civil War in
Tajikistan began, and journalists became targets for killings.
During the war, forces of the opposition and the government both
massacred civilians from certain regions because of their perceived
political alignments. Thousands of Gharmis and Pamiris
were selectively killed by pro-government forces for killings in
the first year of the war.[1]
In December 1992 alone, four journalists of Pamiri origin were
killed.[4]
There were also instances of journalists who were killed for their
criticism of Islamic groups allied with the opposition. By 1995 at
least 37 journalists had been killed in Tajikistan.[5]
By the late 1990s, the number of killings of journalists in
Tajikistan began to fall. This was not due to greater press
freedoms in the republic, but rather to the fact that a large
number of journalists had fled the country and journalistic freedom
of expression inside of Tajikistan had come to a halt. The non-governmental
organization Freedom House rated press freedoms in
Tajikistan as "Not Free" beginning in 1992.[6]
Other NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect
Journalists and the Glasnost Defense
Foundation, have issued reports condemning the lack of press
freedoms in Tajikistan. By 2007 the murder of journalists had
ceased, but that year Human Rights Watch criticized the government
of Tajikistan for its move to “tighten control over independent
media activities” and the fact that journalists critical of the
government are “routinely threatened with prosecution.”[7]
In nearly every case of the killing of a journalist in Tajikistan,
no suspects have been arrested or brought to trial.
1990
- N.I. Matrosov was a Lenfilm employee. He was in Dushanbe when a
confrontation between the protestors and government forces broke
out. Matrosov was shot on 12 February at 3:40 p.m. when a sniper
from government building opened fire on demonstrators in Dushanbe.
Matrosov was filming the event from the second floor of his
Tajikistan hotel room. In the same incident, a woman was killed as
she stood beside her brother, photojournalist who was photographing
the incident.[8]
1992
- Khushvaht Muborakshoev worked for Tajikistan
State Television. He was killed in December at an unknown location
by members of the People's Front, according to local journalists.
He was a Pamiri.[4]
- Filolisho Khilvatshoev worked for Payomi
Dushanbe. He was killed in December at an unknown location by
members of the People's Front, according to local journalists. He
was a Pamiri.[4]
- Jamshed Davliyatmamatov was a correspondent of
the state-run Khovar Information Agency. He was killed in December
in Dushanbe by members of the People's Front. He was a Pamiri.[4]
- Mukhtor Bugdiev was a photojournalist
with the state-run Khovar Information Agency. He was reportedly
killed in December by members of the People's Front. Bugdiev was a
Pamiri.[4]
- Tavakkal Faizulloev, a Kulobi, was a correspondent for the newspaper
Subhi Yovon in Yovon district, Kulob Oblast. On 17 November he
was murdered in retaliation for writing anti-Islamic articles. The
exact location of his death is unknown.[4]
- Tura Kobilov was editor of the newspaper
Bairaki Dusti. In June 1992 he was taken hostage and later
shot and killed in Bokhtar district
by unidentified captors, according to the Union of Journalists of
Tajikistan.[4]
- Shirindzhon Amirdzhonov was a correspondent
for Tajikistan Radio. On 7 May he was killed along with Olim
Zarobekov at the government-run Radio House in Dushanbe, according
to the Union of Journalists of Tajikistan.[4]
- Olim Zarobekov was a departmental head at
Tajikistan Radio. On 7 May he was killed along with Shirindzhon
Amirdzhonov at the government-run Radio House in Dushanbe,
according to the Union of Journalists of Tajikistan.[4]
- Murodullo Sheraliev was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Sadoi
Mardum. On 5 May Sheraliev was killed by shot in the
Tajikistan Supreme Soviet in Dushanbe, according to the Union of
Journalists of Tajikistan.[4]
1993
- Tabarali Saidaliev was editor of the newspaper
Ba Pesh. On 21 October he was kidnapped and his body was found in a
cotton field three days later. The men who kidnapped him were
dressed as security agents.[9]
- Olimjon Yorasonov worked for the a regional
newspaper in Vakhsh, Khatlon Province, and was
killed in June or July. According to local journalists Yorasonov
was murdered by the members of the militia People's Front.[9]
- Pirimkul Sattori was a journalist from the Qurghonteppa
newspaper Khatlon, who disappeared 28 May in Kulob oblast. His body was
found several days later in a cotton field.[9][10]
- Zukhuruddin Suyari was a correspondent for the
government magazine Todzhikiston. His body was found in
Qurghonteppa at the end of March. It is suspected that Suyari was
murdered by National Front members because his was Gharmi.[9]
- Saidmurod Yerov was the director of the
executive director of Farkhang magazine. In January 1993
Yerov was arrested by the National Front. His body was reportedly
found in a mass grave in Dushanbe on 2 February.[9]
1994
- Khushvakht Haydarsho was secretary of the
editorial board of the Tajik-language government newspaper
Jumhuriyat. On 18 May he was shot dead near his home in
Dushanbe. It is believed that his death is connected to a series of
articles he published on crime in Tajikistan.[11]
1995
- Muhiddin Olimpur was found shot outside a park
in Dushanbe in December. He was the head of the BBC's Persian
Service bureau in Dushanbe.
- Muhammadsharif Holov was a writer and
freelance journalist. On 16 November, Holov was killed when around
23:00 an unknown man in a mask entered his apartment and shot him
with an automatic rifle. Holov was born in the village Olmalik in
Tajikabad District on 4 February 1928. As a youth he had worked in
the theatre and served in the military. He later went on to author
several plays, become director of the director of the Tajik State
Youth Theatre, and was a member of the Writers' Union of
Tajikistan.[12]
- “TKD” Pochohona Sayfiddinov was a former
proofreader in the newspaper "Hakikati Kurgonteppa" and
correspondent for the newspaper "Adabiet wa". He frequently
published under the pseudonym Rustoi. On 29 September,
Sayfiddinov's body was found in the Vakhsh River near the village of
Kyzyl-Kala outside of Qurghonteppa. His body had been brutalized
before being dumped in the river. He and his driver, Todzhiddin
Homidov, had had their car stopped a few days earlier were stopped
by unknown gunmen. Sayfiddinov was born on 2 August 1962 in the
village Boturobod in Bokhtar district.
In 1986 he graduated from the Arabic language faculty of the school
of Oriental language
of Tajik State University. It is suspected that Sayfiddinov was
murdered because he was a close friend of politician Abdumalik
Abdullojanov and had published articles about him, which had been
criticized in the official press.[13]
- Muhammadmuslih Nadzhibulloev was a freelance
writer and student in the Department of Journalism at the Tajik
State University in Dushanbe. 0n 4 July, Nadzhibulloev was stabbed
to death by unknown assailants. His body was found in Komsomolskaya
Lake in the center of Dushanbe two days later. A few days before
the his death, Nadzhibulloev had defended a comparative analysis of
the censorship of the independent newspaper Charogi and the modern
press in Tajikistan. Nadzhibulloev was born in March 1974 in the
village Vora in Panjakent
district, Sughd.[14]
- Olim Abdulov was director and writer for the
Television program "Madzhro". On the evening of 15 May he was
killed near his home by unknown persons. Abdulov was born 2 July
1970 in Dushanbe. He had graduated from in 1992 from the Institute
of the Arts.[15]
- Zayniddin Muhiddinov was a freelance writer and former editor
of the newspaper Hakikat. On 14 March, unidentified men in
camouflage uniforms shot dead Muhiddinov in the Leninsky district.[16]
1996
- Viktor Nikulin was a correspondent for Russian
Public Television (ORT) in Dushanbe. Nikulin was fatally shot
at the door to his office on 28 March. He had received three
threatening telephone calls a week before he was killed.[17]
1998
- Otakhon Latifi was an
opposition politician member and one of the most notable
journalists in Tajikistan. On 22 September, at around 8am, Latifi
was shot at point blank range outside his apartment in
Dushanbe.
1999
- Dzhumakhon Khotami was the chief spokesperson
for the Interior Ministry of Tajikistan. On 5 July he was assassinated in
Dushanbe. Khotami had been the anchor of a weekly TV program that
reported on drug trafficking, corruption and organized
crime. Speculation for his death revolves around the drug
bosses whose name’s he revealed publicly on television.[18]
2000
- Iskandar Khatloni was a
Moscow-based correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty's Tajik Service. On the night of 21 September, Khatloni
was attacked in his Moscow apartment by an unknown assailant
wielding an axe. He died that night in a local hospital. Khatloni
had recently been working on stories about the human-rights abuses
in Chechnya[19]
- Aleksandr Alpatov was a photographer for the
Khovar Information Agency. The Interior Ministry of Tajikistan
reported on 1 September that Alpatov's body was found not far from
his home in Dushanbe. He was 42 when he died. Authorities reported
that he had been killed by a handgun equipped with a silencer.[20]
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