Uzbekistan's Prosecutor-General's Office interrogated two independent journalists today in Tashkent, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports.
The prosecutor's office "invited" several journalists who have worked or currently work for foreign media outlets to come for meetings, including Basil Markov, Sid Yanishev, Marina Kozlova, and former RFE/RL correspondent Khusnitdin Kutbitdinov.
Yanishev and Kutbitdinov held their meetings today. Markov and Kozlova have said they will refuse to attend such a meeting unless they are ordered to do so.
Yanishev told RFE/RL that Bahram Nurmatov, the assistant to Tashkent's prosecutor-general, told him the interrogation was initiated after National Security Service and Foreign Ministry files on Yanishev's activities were sent to the prosecutor's office.
Yanishev said he was shown his file and was interrogated about his activities. He said he was questioned about which international conferences he had attended, foreign payments he received, and any contact with foreign embassies.
Yanishev said he was asked to sign an explanatory note at the end of the questioning. He said that no charges were officially brought against him.
Kutbitdinov told RFE/RL that Nurmatov told him there were reports that he had provided "discrediting information" to foreign websites using pseudonyms. Kutbitdinov said told Nurmatov he was unfamiliar with the pseudonyms and did not write any of the information that was shown to him.
Galima Bukharbaeva, an independent Uzbek journalist and editor of uznews.net who lives in exile in Europe, told RFE/RL that the interrogation procedure at the prosecutor's office is a typical practice used by the Uzbek government to intimidate journalists in Uzbekistan.
The prosecutor's office "invited" several journalists who have worked or currently work for foreign media outlets to come for meetings, including Basil Markov, Sid Yanishev, Marina Kozlova, and former RFE/RL correspondent Khusnitdin Kutbitdinov.
Yanishev and Kutbitdinov held their meetings today. Markov and Kozlova have said they will refuse to attend such a meeting unless they are ordered to do so.
Yanishev told RFE/RL that Bahram Nurmatov, the assistant to Tashkent's prosecutor-general, told him the interrogation was initiated after National Security Service and Foreign Ministry files on Yanishev's activities were sent to the prosecutor's office.
Yanishev said he was shown his file and was interrogated about his activities. He said he was questioned about which international conferences he had attended, foreign payments he received, and any contact with foreign embassies.
Yanishev said he was asked to sign an explanatory note at the end of the questioning. He said that no charges were officially brought against him.
Kutbitdinov told RFE/RL that Nurmatov told him there were reports that he had provided "discrediting information" to foreign websites using pseudonyms. Kutbitdinov said told Nurmatov he was unfamiliar with the pseudonyms and did not write any of the information that was shown to him.
Galima Bukharbaeva, an independent Uzbek journalist and editor of uznews.net who lives in exile in Europe, told RFE/RL that the interrogation procedure at the prosecutor's office is a typical practice used by the Uzbek government to intimidate journalists in Uzbekistan.