On Roundtable “Realization of the right of press freedom in Uzbekistan”

April 15, 2008

Since 1993 the May 3 is marked annually as a World Press Day under aegis of the United Nations. Marking this day in Uzbekistan has become a tradition. The roundtable “Realization of the right of press freedom in Uzbekistan” was dedicated to the World Press Day. The event was held on April 11, 2008 at the National Human Rights Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The Center jointly with the Committee of Legislative Chamber Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan on information and communication technologies organized this roundtable to discuss the main directions of democratizing mass media in Uzbekistan, measures of protecting a right to freedom of press, as well as the prospects of developing the local print media.

The roundtable has underscored that the Law “On mass media” of January 15, 2007 defines the concept of mass media freedom which stipulates that each person shall have a right to appear in press, openly express his view and beliefs if otherwise shall not be envisaged by law. Mass media shall have a right to search for, retrieve, disseminate information and is responsible for the objective and reliable information they disseminate in line with an established procedure.

Uzbekistan created necessary organizational, legal and technical conditions to establish and develop the public, non-state institutions and structures in the information area. The Creative Union of Journalists, Union of Writers of Uzbekistan, National Association of Electronic Mass Media, Public Fund to Support and Develop Independent Print Media and News Agencies of Uzbekistan and many other public associations are operating in the country.
Profound changes in the sphere of information positively affect the development of native print media the number of which for over the last ten years has doubled. At the moment, 671 newspapers, 208 magazines, 79 publishing houses and four news agencies are functioning in Uzbekistan. Print media in Uzbekistan circulate in the Uzbek, Russian, English, Kazakh, Tajik, Karakalpak and Korean languages.

The main objectives of Public Fund to Support and Develop Independent Print Media and News Agencies are as follows: to stimulate and support the activity of independent print media (over 160 non-state and non-profit publications are printed in Uzbekistan) and news agencies aimed to broadly cover the processes of democratizing and renewing the society, reforming and modernizing the country, to consolidate the role and significance of mass media in building strong civil society, protecting human rights, summarizing and expressing the public view, raising the legal, political culture of citizens, their social and political activeness.

The lawmakers of Committee of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis on information and communication technologies, representatives of National Human Rights Center of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Agency for Print and Information, Public Fund to Support and Develop Independent Print Media and News Agencies and others spoke at the roundtable.

Participants of the roundtable – the lawmakers and senators of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, representatives of ministries and agencies, journalists of leading state and non-state mass media, as well as the non-state and non-profit organizations actively discussed the participation of mass media in the ongoing reforms.

The roundtable saw the presentation of Collection of fundamental conventions and recommendations of World Labor Organization and the Uzbek edition of Parliamentary Council’s manual on child labor prepared and published by the National Human Rights Center jointly with WLO International program on elimination the child labor.