DECEMBER 4 – THE ELECTIONS OF PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN.. 1
Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs is strengthened. 3
DECEMBER 4 – THE ELECTIONS OF PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
The nongovernmental television and radio broadcasting studios of Uzbekistan have been covering the current electoral season with the use of cutting-edge global technologies
An international roundtable discussion in Tashkent has provided an effective platform to address application of international standards in covering presidential elections in Uzbekistan by nongovernmental TV and radio broadcasters of the country in the context of national experience and global practices.
The forum was organized by the National Association of Electronic Mass Media (NAEMM) in partnership with the Central Election Commission (CEC), representative offices of Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany) and UNESCO in Uzbekistan.
Taking part in it were deputies of Oliy Majlis, officials of the ministries and government agencies, foreign experts from Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, France, representatives of diplomatic corps and international organizations accredited in Uzbekistan, of political parties and mass media.
Speaking at the opening of the forum, chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Management of Resources of the Public Fund to Support NGOs and Other Civil Society Institutions under the Oliy Majlis A.Saidov, chairman of the Board of the National Association of Electronic Mass Media Firdavs Abdukhalikov, chairman of the Central Election Commission Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov noted that the reforms, being carried out in the country, represent in themselves a multifaceted process, in which the quality of democratic renovation was largely determined by the level of public opinion, while mass media play a major role in shaping it.
As a rule, people learn about the course of election campaign from the newspapers, via TV, radio and Internet. And mass media provide us not only with all the news about the elections, but they also have an opportunity to create the politicians’ images and render a decisive impact on the voters’ political preferences.
There are also serious qualitative transformations taking place today in the media sphere along with quantitative changes. The essence and content, themes covered in the articles published in the newspapers and magazines and broadcast over the radio and television while meeting modern requirements, serve as an evidence of expanding outlook, growing experience, knowledge and professional skills of domestic journalists. Such unbiased implications were voiced in the speeches made by many experts, representatives of international organizations accredited in Uzbekistan, who monitor on a regular basis the progressive changes taking place among young journalists.
“The National Association of Electronic Mass Media of Uzbekistan jointly with the Central Election Commission signed a bilateral agreement on covering presidential elections in Uzbekistan, which is an evidence of credibility of the non-government TV and radio stations,” noted in his speech chairperson of the NAEMM Firdavs Abdukhalikov. “This, in its turn, puts on us greater responsibility. This document triggered an active preparatory work from the side of non-government radio broadcasters to the process of covering the elections. 263 reports, 126 news items, and 63 public opinion surveys have already been prepared in this area to date. During the subsequent period we plan to prepare and broadcast more than 400 materials, and we will try to highlight this important political event promptly and objectively.
“We all know that the mass media, covering the election campaign these days, are an important factor of raising the level of legal culture and awareness of citizens about all stages of preparation for and conducting the elections, and facilitating their active participation in this event. It is undeniable that free and fair elections are carried out not only for the sake of opportunity to vote, but to exercise the right to receive information about the election process and the candidates. The electorate may justifiably cast their votes to a definite candidate only on condition that they have full information about him or her. The growing interest in the candidates, their programs, ideas and objectives, and to their future in general is a positive sign of democracy.”
“The election campaign in Uzbekistan is covered not only by national but also foreign mass media. Thus, the objective reflection of preparatory process and conducting elections for introducing this political process to the entire global community turns, in this connection, into yet another priority task facing our media workers.”
Responses to the election campaign in Uzbekistan have already appeared in the foreign press. In particular, the newspaper Renmin Ribao (People’s Daily) published an article stating that the upcoming presidential elections in Uzbekistan will raise to “a qualitatively new level the processes of further deepening democratic reforms.” The Israeli newspaper “Globe” writes about a large-scale propaganda campaign launched and carried out by the candidates. A Pakistani TV channel presented a story about the election campaign in Uzbekistan, which provided detailed information about the “Uzbek model of development”, which had made it possible to hold democratic elections. As we can see, foreign journalists are involved in creating the image of our independent state.
After signing the bilateral agreement with the Central Election Commission the NAEMM conducted a general conference of the NAEMM members aimed at preparation for and coverage of presidential elections. A Program of covering the elections by NAEMM and non-government TV and radio studios was discussed and approved at the conference. The Program consists of six directions of activities.
One of them includes conducting training seminars on electoral legislation for creative groups of the non-government TV and radio stations with the participation of members of the Central Election Commission. This is what the OSCE expert on the issues of freedom of mass media in Vienna, chairperson of the Creative Union of Journalists of Lithuania Dainus Radzevichius says about the work carried out in this direction:
“Coverage of election processes in regional TV channels plays a major role. Any journalist should be well aware about the electoral legislation. The programs broadcast by non-government TV studios, which I have been able to watch, were prepared at a high level from this point of view. I have no doubt that presidential elections in Uzbekistan will be successful. And the merit in this goes to national mass media, which carry out large-scale and diverse activities in covering the election campaign.”
Another direction envisages conducting events with the participation of international experts with the aim of demonstration the opportunities and conditions created for non-government electronic mass media on the expression of their active civic stance. Here’s the opinion of the UNESCO senior councilor Mogens Schmidt on the events carried out in this direction:
“The seminars organized by the NAEMM, at which I had a chance to participate, were held in an interesting and informative way. Taking part in them were the youths and girls, who try to master European standards in covering the elections and apply them in practice. They are all true patriots of their country and their occupation, which they strive to continuously improve. They try to stay close to the people in their professional creative activity, and this too is a manifestation of Uzbekistan’s democratic standards.”
Another two directions in the NAEMM program provide for preparation of quick and authentic media products by the Association’s information services and its radio information center and their delivery to non-government TV and radio broadcasters.
This is what Doctor Eugene Eteris, international observer of the Baltic-course.com internet magazine (Denmark) says about this activity:
“The success of independent TV and radio stations of Uzbekistan in covering presidential elections rests in its focus and dedication to the youth not only in the quality of its target audience, but also in the makeup of its working personnel. Working in the non-government TV and radio stations today are predominantly young people and they demonstrate high level of professionalism in covering such a rather complicated subject as election of a head of state. I feel impressed about the huge volume of these programs and their high quality.”
Yet another direction is production of social media products and TV and radio commercials, devoted to explaining the essence and significance of elections, basic provisions and procedure of voting, and functioning of polling stations. Head of UNESCO Office in Uzbekistan Krista Pikkat highly assessed the media content elaborated in this direction:
“The creative staff of NAEMM has done a tremendous job in covering the pre-election campaign; the non-government TV and radio companies cover the elections at the global level. As far as social commercials are concerned, they are interesting in their ideas and content, as well as in their consideration of the interests of the country’s younger generation.”
The last direction assumes preparation of talk-shows on the subject of elections with the participation of representatives of the CEC, political parties, and the presidential candidates’ confidants and transmitting them by the non-government TV and radio stations. President of the Federal Association of Television Companies of Germany Rene Falkner expressed his opinion on this subject:
“I have watched with great interest some of the shows broadcast over the channel “My voice” – they are very interesting, quite acute at times and they represent a wide range of voters’ opinions. And the master classes, which I conducted in Tashkent, were devoted to international experience in preparing talk-shows on important socio-political events. Many NAEMM young staff members demonstrated during the training their willingness and ability to enrich those programs. I have no doubt that they will be able to improve further their skills and potential.”
Local and foreign experts noted at the “round table” discussions that the electoral processes differ from one country to another. However, this circumstance does not remove the use of international standards in covering the election process. There is a possibility to assess the extent of creating necessary conditions for an informed and conscientious choice of every citizen of the country with the help of those landmarks and through the analysis and realistic evaluation of the opportunities of the country’s media sector. The forum participants expressed their confidence in that it had united them in their aspiration to achieve true democracy and their desire to ensure that every voice was heard and headed to.
The foreign experts underlined that they were able not only to discuss but also sum up certain results of application of international standards in covering presidential elections in Uzbekistan by non-government TV and radio studios of the country, which deserve the highest appreciation.
Recommendations have been elaborated on the further coverage of election processes on the basis of advanced countries’ international experiences.
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
BUSINESS CLIMATE
Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs is strengthened
In Uzbekistan the strong legal basis for consecutive development of market economy, freedom of business activity which provided for the last eleven years steadily high rates of economic growth at the level of eight percent is created. Entrepreneurship and small business play more and more important role in forming GDP of the country
In the conditions of continuous influence of world financial and economic crisis our determining task is providing conditions for freedom of small business and a private entrepreneurship, its identifying as the top priority of state policy. This task aimed at radical reduction of interference of state bodies in entrepreneurial activity with a focus on early warning, improving the efficiency of prevention and non-admission of violations is identified in the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On additional measures to ensure the accelerated development of entrepreneurial activity, comprehensive protection of private property and substantial improvement of business climate” of October 5, 2016.
The document approves the Program of complex measures to ensure the accelerated development of entrepreneurial activity, comprehensive protection of private property and substantial improvement of business climate in the Republic of Uzbekistan which essentially and substantially was logical continuation of the program approved by the Decree of the First President of our country Islam Karimov “On Measures to Secure Reliable Protection of Private Property, Small Business and Private Entrepreneurship, Remove Barriers on the Way of Their Accelerated Development” of May 5, 2015.
To strengthen forms of parliamentary control of observance of laws in this sphere the Decree recommends to Chambers of Parliament to consider an issue of establishment of institute of the business ombudsman supervising protection of rights and legitimate interests of entrepreneurs under Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The main functions of the business ombudsman are to participate in the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of entrepreneurship development, protect the rights and legitimate interests of businesses, render legal support to businesses while auditing their activity, monitor the practical implementation of the norms and requirements of the legislation on guarantees of freedom of entrepreneurship as well as evaluate the impact of the adopted normative legal acts on entrepreneurial activity by the state, monitor compliance of public, regulatory and law enforcement authorities, local governments with regulations protecting rights and lawful interests of entrepreneurs.
As foreign experience shows, the institute of the business ombudsman on protection of entrepreneur’s rights take an important place in their legal protection, representing the interests in the relations with government institutions. Models of business ombudsman are formed proceeding from specific economic and public and legal conditions of each country.
There are created in Uzbekistan mechanisms of ensuring and reliable protection of the entrepreneur’s rights. The effective system of privileges and preferences allowing to aim funds at the further development of the entities is legislatively created. The procedure of registration, receipts of permissions is considerably simplified, their quantity is minimized. Everywhere “single window” centers work, there are implemented electronic reporting forms that not only simplifies relations with state agencies but also restricts a risk of abuses. The number of inspections of activity is reduced, unlawful interference is abolished, liability measures including criminal liability are established, the penal and administrative legislation in relation to fair entrepreneurs is liberalized. There are established state institutes on protection of the entrepreneur’s rights.
The most important condition of efficiency of these regulations, ensuring real freedom of entrepreneurship, growth of their participation in the solution of the major economic problems of the country, growth of the population welfare is unconditional observance of the legislation, reliability of mechanisms of protection of the guaranteed rights. With respect thereto the institute of an business ombudsman is capable to play an important role in providing legal protection of entrepreneurs, representing their interests in the relations with government institutions. As the world practice shows, experience of activity of the Human Rights Commissioner of Oliy Majlis, a major factor of effective protection of the rights of citizens by ombudsman is its independence. Electable by parliament, he is accountable only to this representative authority. Control the ombudsman exercises over activity of state bodies is external and can be initiated by himself or upon the demand of citizens. When considering specific violations by state bodies in the field of the rights and freedoms of citizens, the Ombudsman is guided, first of all, by concepts of justice, supremacy of law, balance of interests of the state and society. In our country where human rights are identified as the supreme value, this institute on the rights of entrepreneurs, considering that in the sphere about 80 percent of an occupied population are employed today, will become an important additional tool of protection of entrepreneurs against abuses, law violations by the state agencies and the main defender of businessmen.
Activity of the Ombudsman for protection of the rights and legitimate interests of an entrepreneurship complements the existing instruments of ensuring their rights and freedoms, without canceling and reviewing competence of the state bodies performing these functions.
The goal of Legislative Chamber and Senate under Oliy Majlis is to analyze comprehensively practice of foreign ombudsmen, the mechanisms of ensuring freedom of business activity operating in our country, removal of barriers on the way of development of a private property and entrepreneurship. Experience of the Human Rights Commissioner of the Oliy Majlis in development and discussion of regulatory legal acts, monitoring of laws observance, international documents, cooperation with state agencies, the international organizations, ombudsmen of other countries, consideration of citizen’s appeals, implementation of parliamentary control of human rights observance by state agencies is also important. On this basis it is necessary to develop also the corresponding regulatory legal acts.
(Source: «Business partner.uz» newspaper)
International cooperation
In November, the Tashkent Declaration on Culture of Peace and UNESCO Activities in Member States has turned 18
The Declaration was adopted in 1998 in Tashkent during the session of the Executive Board of UNESCO, held for the first time in the CIS. Uzbekistan was not chosen as a venue by chance. Here, enlightenment, science and culture have from ancient times received special attention.
Respect for the national values and history of more than 190 member states is the main principle of the UNESCO activity. The work of this organization proves that science and culture lead mankind towards light and kindness, and calls on nations to rally around these humanistic ideas.
Uzbekistan has benen actively cooperating with this authoritative organization, one of the main objectives of which was and remains the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage. To date, 300 objects of cultural heritage of 88 countries – the customs, traditions, festivals, cuisine, folklore, songs and dances are included in the List of Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Among them are four ancient cities of Uzbekistan – Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Shahrisabz. In addition, our national values, the holiday Navruz and the Katta ashula, Shashmaqom and Askiya as masterpieces of the oral and intangible cultural legacy are included in the relevant UNESCO Representative List.
Speaking of the activities of the organization in Uzbekistan, the head of the UNESCO office in Uzbekistan Krista Pikkat said: “Thanks to the richness and diversity of cultural expressions, the work in the field of culture is perhaps the most important and interesting part of the activities of our office in Uzbekistan. Through the support of crafts and tourism, restoration of monuments, UNESCO contributes to the development of culture. The organization’s activities are based on a number of regulatory documents in the field of culture, in particular the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), the Convention for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), ratified by Uzbekistan. The established trust-based relationships provide for a solid foundation for the further consolidation and enhancement of cooperation.”
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
Great Silk Road
Uzbekistan will become one of the points of the international expedition ‘Great Silk Road 2017.’ It will be headed by a Polish reporter and researcher, member of the Russian Geographical Society, member of the Royal Geographical Society in London Jacek Pałkiewicz
The traveler told about the project, scheduled for May-June 2017, during a press conference held at the Embassy of Poland in Uzbekistan:
“25 years ago, I have been in your country, visited all the historical centers of the republic. Most of all I remembered the hospitality of the people, about whom I repeatedly mentioned in my books. I have visited many countries, but such a warm welcome met not everywhere.
The precondition for the new large-scale project turned my old dream to pass along the Great Silk Road. Although I have been to many countries in this road, I never traveled it from beginning to end. Another stimulus was the initiative ‘One Belt, One Road’, put forward by the President of China. It is aimed at the creation of economic zones, transport network linking China with Central Asian countries and the so-called Old World. Our expedition will overcome the long route for more than 10 thousand kilometers from China to Poland through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. It largely follows the historic Great Silk Road, and even begins from Xian city, as it was centuries ago.
The team composed of several dozen people, including journalists, photographer and writer. In each country, we will be joined by a local TV crew. A book will be written by the end of the expedition, as well as documentary film produced, and dozens of publications and reports in the media of several countries.
This project is not just travel. We want to draw attention to the countries located along the route of the expedition. Uzbekistan possesses great tourism potential, which is not found anywhere else in the world. The historical wealth that remained in the country can be developed and used for the attraction of tourists. We hope that the expedition will contribute to the strengthening of relations with Asian countries in the field of cultural and scientific exchanges, the creation of new and expansion of existing capacity in the field of international economy and business.”
(Source: «Uzbekistan Today» newspaper)
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