On March 14, the annual OSCE conference in Vienna, the capital of Austria, on freedom of the press, began its work. Its participants discussed the topics “Media pluralism as the cornerstone of democracy,” “Why can’t there be comprehensive security without media freedom?” and “How does media freedom affect all three dimensions of the OSCE?”
As we reported earlier, representatives of the political movement “Group 24” and representatives of the autocratic government of Rakhmonov are present at this significant conference.
In his speech, Mohammadsobir Abdukahhor, representative of the Group-24 political movement in the European Union, analyzed and discussed the state of press freedom in Tajikistan. In particular, he stated that there is no media freedom in Tajikistan and that the Rakhmonov regime brutally persecutes journalists. The autocratic government took control of the media. Last year alone, in Tajikistan, 7 journalists and bloggers were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from 7 to 21 years. They were accused of spreading false information, participating in extremist communities and collaborating with banned organizations. The convicts themselves did not admit their guilt and denied all charges.
In his speech, Muhammadsobir Abdukahhor stressed that the presidential and parliamentary elections in Tajikistan are held in clear violation of international standards and legislation of Tajikistan. These important political campaigns are not reported transparently, and what is said in the government media is a lie.
During his speech, Mohammadsobir Abdukahhor said that about 1,000 Tajik citizens are participating in the war between Russia and Ukraine on the side of Russia, but the Rakhmonov regime does not allow anyone to talk about it.
When Muhammadsobir Abdukahhor spoke about the participation of Tajik citizens in the war between Russia and Ukraine, the representative of Tajikistan protested and demanded to stop the speech of Muhammadsobir Abdukahhor. In response to this action, the representative of the Government of Tajikistan Muhammadsobir Abdukakhor said that in Tajikistan everyone was forced to remain silent, and again we are forced to remain silent at international prestigious conferences!
After these words of Muhammadsobir Abdukahhor, the conference officials spoke with the representative of Tajikistan within 4-5 minutes. This action by the representative of the autocratic government, Rakhmonov, proved the level of media freedom in Tajikistan and once again showed in the presence of OSCE representatives – defenders of democracy and freedom of speech, how they are afraid to tell the truth in Tajikistan.
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Political movement “Group 24”
