"These five country reports: on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, provide a general overview of the current state of media affairs in the country concerned, focus on media legislation and cases of harassment of journalists and provide country-specific recommendations t
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o the governments on what can be done to improve the situation. Many of the remarks and opinions expressed are highly critical of the authorities, often concentrating on government-orchestrated campaigns against independent and opposition media. In some of these countries over the past decade journalists have fallen victim to the ultimate form of censorship: what I refer to as “censorship by killing.” Cases of “structural censorship,” which include numerous forms of indirect pressure on media through state-controlled monopolies on printing facilities and distribution, misuse of tax inspections, and other mostly economic and financial forms of pressure, are abundant in the Central Asian countries." (Preface, page 5)
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"This report provides a comprehensive overview of the role and position of the media in Tajikistan. The contributors explain that the weakness of the media there is due to many different reasons and linked to the general political, social and economic circumstances in the country. The report explain
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s how the consequences of the civil war, the loss of competent journalists, the high costs of production, the self-censorship pressure exerted on journalists and editors by politicians not used to relatively free press have all helped inhibit the development of the media in the country." (Digital Library, ETh Zürich Center for Security Studies)
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