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TURKMENISTAN
The Constitution provides for the right to hold personal
convictions and to express them freely. In
practice, however, the Government severely restricts
freedom of speech and does not permit freedom of the
press. Continued criticism of the Government can
lead to personal hardship, including loss of
opportunities for advancement and employment.
The Government
completely controls radio and television; it funds almost
all print media. The Government censors newspapers
and uses Turkmen language newspapers to attack its
critics abroad; the Committee for the Protection of State
Secrets must approve prepublication galleys.
Russian language newspapers from abroad now are available
by subscription and some Russian and other foreign
newspapers are also available in several Ashgabat
hotels. However, the two nominally independent
newspapers established under presidential decree, Adalat
(Justice) and Galkynysh (Revival), are no longer even
nominally independent.
In order to
regulate printing and copying activities, the Government
ordered in February that all publishing houses and
printing and copying establishments obtain a license and
register their equipment.
The Government
prohibits the media from reporting the views of
opposition political leaders and critics, and it never
allows even the mildest form of criticism of the
President in print. Criticism sanctioned by the
President of government officials is commonplace.
The Government has subjected those responsible for
critical foreign press items to threats and
harassment. The KNB arrested a former presidential
spokesman one day after he criticized the Government on
Radio Liberty in August. The former press secretary
was released 10 days after the arrest after he said that
he was coerced into making antigovernment statements by
the radio service. The Government revoked the
accreditation of the Ashgabat-based Turkmen language
Radio Liberty correspondent in 1996 because of broadcasts
by an opposition politician in exile, but it has not
prevented him from continuing to file reports.
Following his
release from a psychiatric hospital in Geok-Depe in
April, dissident Durdymurad Khodzha-Mukhammed was warned
by a member of the state’s internal security
apparatus to refrain from political activity, including
meeting with foreign diplomats. In August after
meeting with the British ambassador in Ashgabat,
Khodzha-Mukhammed was abducted and beaten severely by
unknown persons; he remains in very poor physical
condition. Members of Khodzha-Mukhamed’s
family also reportedly have been threatened with harm if
he resumes political activities.
Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Yoshan Annakurbanov
was released in November 1997 from a KNB prison but
remained under investigation for allegedly attempting to
smuggle “military secrets” out of the
country. He was forbidden to leave his apartment,
meet with journalists and foreign officials, or discuss
his case. In August he left the country and now
lives in the West.
Intellectuals
have reported that the security organs have instructed
them to praise the President in their art and have warned
them not to participate in receptions hosted by foreign
diplomatic missions.
The Government
also restricts academic freedom. It does not
tolerate criticism of government policy or the President
in academic circles, and it discourages research into
areas it considers politically sensitive. The
government-controlled Union of Writers has in the past
expelled members who have criticized government policy;
libraries have removed their works.
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