Uzbekistan ordered to “beat off attacks by international human rights organizations...

On 10 December 2020, Abu-Ali Niyazmatov, the administrator of Uyat.uz, a social group on Facebook, posted about custom-made laudatory publications in the European media. I would like to comment on this practice.

The image of the government of Shavkat Mirziyoyev began to concern his team as soon as he came to power. This is due to his desire to divert attention from the fact that he became president in violation of the current Constitution of Uzbekistan, hence the urgent need to create an information legend about the reformer, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. And when he got a press secretary who began to be active on social networks on every occasion, it became clear that the Uzbek authorities decided to launch a global campaign of political lobbying, using modern information technologies, the Internet and the practice of leading PR companies.

The rest proceeded along the lines of the classics of this genre: Shavkat Mirziyoyev created an online reception, which received millions of appeals from naive citizens, new local media outlets were opened, new journalists and bloggers loyal to the authorities emerged - they began to write often about the humanitarian aid of the oligarchs, the charitable works of the first lady and the eldest daughter of the president, creating for them the images of good "Santa Claus" and "Snow Maidens". Against the backdrop of such informational hurray campaign, thousands of dramas began to flare up due to the demolition of houses and bankruptcy of entrepreneurs, but at first the authorities generally preferred to keep silent about these.

The statements of the press service of the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs helping to evade responsibility of those involved in torture and extrajudicial executions against prisoners and other victims of human rights violations are particularly cynical.

Meanwhile, the reality is that there are still no conditions in Uzbekistan for transparency in fulfilling obligations within the framework of protection against torture and corruption; the process of legalising the human rights activities of independent human rights defenders, those who cannot be bought off with an apartment or a position in power, has not yet begun. And at the time when there are no conditions for independent monitoring of human rights observance during the period of isolation associated with COVD-19, Uzbekistan is suddenly taken out of the bottom rungs of international ratings - allegedly for improving the human rights regime, which raises questions.

Is this accidental? Most likely no. Our organisation is in possession of documents that directly show the payment for the services of lobbyists, whose tasks include attracting famous US congressmen, experts, journalists, and creating new websites. This PR campaign is being carried out by a government-controlled team of a new structure, whose official status is an NGO, but it performs pro-state tasks. Not long-ago Lola Karimova used to work using the same scheme, and Gulnara Karimova used it even earlier. And we plan to write about this in more detail very soon.

Nadejda Atayeva