OSCE Criticizes Uzbek Treatment Of Journalists

One of the persecuted Uzbek journalists, Dilmurod Sayyid, whose wife and 6-year-old daughter died in an auto accident while traveling to visit him in prison in November 2009

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has voiced alarm over the treatment of journalists in Uzbekistan.

The OSCE's freedom of the media representative, Dunja Mijatovic, said in a statement that she is "alarmed by the unrelenting judicial pressure exerted upon independent journalists in Uzbekistan."

Writing to the Uzbek foreign minister, Vladimir Norov, Mijatovic expressed concern for two journalists, Abdumalik Boboyev and Vladimir Berezovski, prosecuted for alleged libel.

Mijatovic also expressed concern about three other journalists -- Dilmurod Saiid, Solijon Abdurahmanov, and Hairullo Khamidov -- who are currently serving jail sentences of between six and 12 1/2 years.

In her letter to the Uzbek foreign minister, Mijatovic wrote that "non state-media in Uzbekistan continue to be the target of unrelenting judicial harassment and this is a matter of serious concern to me."

-- RFE/RL Central Newsroom