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US media group face charges in Uzbekistan

TASHKENT: Authorities in tightly controlled Uzbekistan have filed criminal charges against a former director and another employee of a US-based media rights and training group, the organisation said on Wednesday.

Internews Network, which teaches journalists and supports press freedom, said an Uzbek ex-director and accountant were charged on Monday with conspiracy to illegally produce videos and publish materials.

The charges follow a year of harassment and “fishing expeditions” by Uzbek authorities, said a statement posted on the group’s Web site. “The prosecution of Internews and its staff by the Ministry of Justice in Uzbekistan is at odds with a recent call by President Islam Karimov to ‘liberalise the activities’ of the media and ‘provide them with independence and freedom,”‘ the statement said.

The group said officials here have stepped up pressure on it and other international organisations since the harsh suppression in May of an uprising in the eastern city of Andijan. Authorities deny that troops fired on unarmed civilians during the incident, and say 176 people died. Witnesses and rights groups put the figure at about 750.

Some foreign groups have been under mounting pressure here following massive protests that ousted the leadership of Ukraine last year and Georgia in 2003. Karimov - like leaders in some other former Soviet republics - has alleged that Western organisations had helped the opposition in those two countries. ap

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