Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
1
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
ABSTRACT
Uzbekistan faces socio-political changes in the last years and the impact of these turnouts are reflected in the media
landscape of the country. Several cases show that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev who took the office in 2016, opens a
wide range of opportunities for the development of mass media and supporting freedom of speech in the country.
The results of these reflections are investigated in the article by several cases which are discussed more and even
attractive globally. Both positive and negative effects of political reforms in the county are compared with the similar
conditions of other counties such as Turkey, India, the USA, etc.
KEYWORDS
Media landscape, freedom of speech, media freedom, socio-political changes, reforms
INTRODUCTION
According to sociologists, “social change occurs at the
root of the renewal of cultures, civil institutions, and
functions, and this phenomenon takes place gradually
over many years. Comparing any modern society with
its image fifty or one hundred years ago can show the
importance of social changes in society's
life” . Two
centuries ago, the society of Turkestan was
surrounded by religious and secular conflicts, far from
Research Article
CASE STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGES ON THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN UZBEKISTAN
Submission Date:
November 30, 2022,
Accepted Date:
December 05, 2022,
Published Date:
December 08, 2022
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ajsshr/Volume02Issue12-01
Mukarram Otamurodova
Phd Candidate Journalism And Mass Communication University Of Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theusajournals.
com/index.php/ajsshr
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
2
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
enlightenment and development, with the shackles of
slavery hanging around its neck, but now the society
living in the region is on the path of democratic
reforms, striving to strengthen its place in the world
community. If the changes in the first society caused
the suppression of freedom of speech, and the
removal of those who fought for it from the social and
political arena, the social changes in the second society
created the need to realize its necessity, protect and
provide it.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In the second half of the 1990s, the Republic of Turkey
began to try to become a member of the European
Union. The country, which has been a candidate for
membership in the Union since 1999, has implemented
various political reforms over the years, including
improving the state of freedom of expression in the
country. On October 3, 2001, it amended the articles of
the Constitution in force since 1982 related to freedom
of expression and abolished the death penalty .
Political changes in the country - the desire to enter the
European Union, and the legislation related to freedom
of speech have also been reformed, and the search for
the removal of legal obstacles to its provision is
ongoing. While writing about the 10 political reforms
the government developed to join the European
Union, the Turkish newspaper “Radikal” rated the
eighth package - a set of reforms aimed at ensuring
freedom of the press - as the most important and
urgent.
In recent years, social and political changes in
Uzbekistan are also gaining importance in ensuring
freedom of speech and the press. On October 13, 2020,
Uzbekistan was elected to the UN Human Rights
Council. It shows that our country has assumed great
responsibility during its three years of activity within
the Council, which currently unites 47 countries of the
world. According to the interpretation of the
publication “Voice of America” , “the name of
Uzbekistan in the international arena was seriously
damaged in terms of human rights; Mirziyoyev's
government is trying to improve this name. For this
purpose, political prisoners were released, and
cooperation with international organizations was
started. Even UN special rapporteurs were allowed to
be in Uzbekistan and closely study the situation”. The
correspondent of the media outlet discussed the
opinion that the main purpose of membership in the
Council is not to ensure human rights in the country but
to improve the political image of the new government
in the international arena. But the member of the
Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, the chairman of
the nationwide movement “Yuksalish”, Bobur
Bekmurodov spoke to “Voice of America” in Tashkent
that the republic declares that it is ready for any tests
to ensure human rights and freedom of speech and
implement it at international standards.
Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
3
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
The impact of political changes in our country on
freedom of speech is visible from the first years of the
second government. In the March 2, 2018 edition of the
“New York Times” newspaper, a news article titled
“World's Longest
-Imprisoned Journalist is Freed in
Uzbekistan” was published. In this material, the
changes in the media landscape of our country are
analyzed by announcing the release of 64-year-old
journalist Yusuf Rozimurodov, who has been in prison
since 1999. Even though the author refrained from
acknowledging the steps taken to ensure freedom of
speech and the press, but rather listed the previous
government's obstacles in this regard, he does not
deny that due to socio-political changes in the life of
society, human rights have started to be looked at
differently.
As a result of the leading importer of the Internet
segment in the exchange of information, not only our
society, but also societies of various positions in the
world have faced a huge flow of social changes, and
this process is still ongoing. This social phenomenon,
which caused changes in the media consumption
culture of civil society representatives, created the
need to create the issue of freedom of speech in the
virtual world and its legal foundations. In addition, he
made the development of new indicators of press
freedom an issue on the agenda, accelerating the
development of citizen journalism. The
“statista.com”
site, which collects and publishes international
statistical data, announced the number of “digital
population” of the world as of January 2021. According
to him, there are 4.66 billion active Internet users, 4.32
billion mobile Internet users, and 4.2 billion social
network users, and these numbers mean that 59.5
percent of the world's population uses the global
network. "Digital" infrastructure is also improving in
Uzbekistan, which is implementing many reforms to
reduce "digital inequality", meet society's demand for
information and ensure freedom of speech.
According to the information published by the
Committee on Information Policy and Transparency in
State Bodies of the Oliy Majlis Senate, as of February
2022, the most used social network in Uzbekistan is the
Telegram messenger, which currently has more than 18
million users. Also, 4.7 million citizens of the country
use Facebook, 3.7 million use Instagram, 2.6 million use
V-kontakte, 288 thousand use LinkedIn, and more than
51.6 thousand use Twitter constantly . These indicators
show the speed of social changes and the growing
need to ensure and regulate the right to freedom of
speech in a real civil and virtual society.
In recent years, citizen journalism - blogging and
vlogging - has become more widespread in Uzbekistan
under the influence of socio-political changes, the
active layer of the population in social networks has
begun to raise issues in society on their pages. While
blogs with various entertainment content (music,
travel, gastronomy, etc.) are being consumed as a new
Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
4
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
trend in Western countries, it can be observed that the
blog sphere of Uzbekistan is gaining a socio-political
and religious character.
As a result of the actions of the current President of
Uzbekistan,
Shavkat
Mirziyoyev,
to
conduct
transparent politics and recognition of the media as a
leading force in this regard, the attitude of the
representatives of the political circle to the media has
changed and this process continues to move in a
positive direction. As part of the implementation of the
decision of the head of state on June 27, 2019 “On
additional measures to ensure the independence of
mass media and the development of information
services of state bodies and organizations”,
information services were established in each state
organization, and as a result of this political change,
journalists were removed from state organizations. In
addition to the increased access to information,
organizations have begun to understand their
accountability to the people more deeply.
In the early years of the reforms, many leaders who did
not want to cooperate with the mass media and could
not give up the bureaucratic approach in providing
them with information about their activities and
organization were criticized by the President. On
August 3, 2019, at a meeting chaired by the head of
state, a group of regional and district governors was
criticized for being indifferent to the requests of
journalists and bloggers.
But we should not forget another side of the issue, that
is, socio-political changes in society do not always
acquire a positive nature, and such negative processes
pose a serious threat to freedom of speech and the
press. In Israel, one of the few democracies in the
Middle East, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was
accused of corruption after offering regulatory favors
to two of the country's largest media firms in exchange
for positive coverage of his political image, the BBC
reported. Although Naftali Bennett has resisted efforts
to formally indict and prosecute him on these charges,
evidence suggests that the Prime Minister was willing
to sacrifice press freedom to maintain political power.
We can observe a similar situation in the case of Israel
in many countries of the world, for example, India,
which has the largest population, is also one of the
democratic countries that often use signals to
emphasize that it is not the responsibility of the press
to hold the government accountable. According to
research by Reporters Without Borders, the ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party supported campaigns to block
“anti
-
national” speech in 2019, and government
-
affiliated thugs raided the homes and offices of critical
journalists. The media receives constant instructions
on how to cover Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
activities.
In both of the above examples, we can see that
political actions and changes are not always positive
and that these situations hurt media activity and
Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
5
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
freedom of speech, along with all institutions in
society. The desire of both Prime Ministers to maintain
political power in an unjust and not democratic way
requires the silence of activists and journalists who can
properly assess this situation in society. As a result,
freedom of speech and the press will be trampled
again.
Press freedom in the United States, the world's leading
democratic power, has come under unprecedented
pressure under President Donald Trump, according to
political analysts and many media experts. Although
mainstream news organizations have not lost their
power and influence and have continued to actively
report on political figures, Donald Trump's constant
abuse of the press has seriously exacerbated the
erosion of trust in the media. Among other steps, the
president has repeatedly threatened to tighten
defamation laws, revoke the licenses of some
broadcasters and harm other business interests of
media owners. The US constitution provides strong
protections against such actions, but President
Trump's outspoken opposition to press freedom has
had a significant impact on the global media landscape.
Journalists around the world have less and less reason
to believe that Washington will come to their aid if their
basic rights are violated .
One of the largest publications in the country “The
Washington Post” in the issue of March 29,
202 is
entitled “A history of the Trump War on Media —
the
obsession not even coronavirus could stop” published
a critical-analytical article. The journalistic material
states that the 44th President of the United States,
during his political career, constantly accused the mass
media of spreading fake information, which led to the
loss of trust of ordinary people in the media. In
addition, the article entitled “The Cost of Trump’s
Assault on the Press and the Truth” published by “The
New Yorker” on Decembe
r 7, 2020 (what is the cost of
Trump's assault on the press and the truth) also shows
the negative impact of political change on freedom of
speech and the press. Author - David Remnick begins
the article with the following words: “Presidents have
always co
mplained about the press” , and Trump has
done it so openly that followers of his pages on social
networks began to distrust the press. One political
figure's attitude towards the press has inspired many
to follow him.
Analysis of a few details of the conflict between Russia
and Ukraine, one of the main political events focused
on the world media in 2022, shows that the freedom of
the press in both countries was the first casualty of
military operations. According to “Time”, the Kremlin
before the war in Ukraine already tightly controlled
journalism in Russia, but some independent media
outlets fought to challenge the state.
The situation changed on March 4, 2022, when
President Vladimir Putin passed a law punishing the
sharing of “false information” about t
he war with up
Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
6
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
to 15 years in prison, blocking access to Facebook and
foreign media in the country. Independent mass media
such as “Novaya Gazeta” led by Nobel laureate Dmitry
Muratov were forced to stop their activities. The
country’s media regulator susp
ended the Russian
analog of “Euro news” on March 22. In April 2022,
footage of Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the
Russia Today TV channel, advocating government
censorship of the media circulated on social networks.
“No great country can live with
out information
control” , it can be understood that the view of
freedom of speech and press in the country is already
based on the interests of the government.
CONCLUSION
The above examples show that the impact of political
changes has a strong impact not only on the freedom
of speech and press in countries that are just
developing or whose democratic approaches have not
yet been firmly established but also in countries that
consider themselves to be true defenders of human
rights. Even if socio-political changes aim at the
development of the country, the situation may take a
different shape due to some shortcomings in their
implementation or promotion among the society.
Analysis can be thought on the example of the events
that took place in Nukus, the center of Karakalpakstan
on July 1-2, 2022. Irresponsibility in the process of
presenting amendments and additions to the
Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan for public
discussion, and collecting suggestions from citizens for
several months before that, caused public unrest in
Nukus. Even though the goal of the political reform
was to bring our Constitution into line with
international standards and edit it based on the
requirements of modern legislation, political protest
arose after presenting the new version of our
Constitution to the people without thoroughly
studying the opinions of the population. The head of
state, who prioritized the safety of the population, had
to introduce some restrictions in the area. The
disconnection
of
the
Internet
network
in
Karakalpakstan was assessed not only by local activists
but also by foreign mass media as a suppression of
freedom of speech and information. The case also
shows that freedom of speech and the press can
sometimes face even stronger pressures and obstacles
due to political changes.
Through our research, we have analyzed the influence
of social and political changes on freedom of speech.
By comparing the impact of such changes on freedom
of speech in the countries of the world and Uzbekistan,
we found out that socio-political changes have both
positive and negative impacts on the provision of
freedom of speech. That is, free reforms in the life of
the society increase the value of freedom of speech,
but due to political disagreements, it comes under
severe pressure.
REFERENCES
Volume 02 Issue 12-2022
7
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
(ISSN
–
2771-2141)
VOLUME
02
I
SSUE
12
Pages:
01
-07
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2021:
5.
993
)
(2022:
6.
015
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
METADATA
IF
–
5.968
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
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