Uznews, Tashkent, 07 May 2009 – Regional journalists claim that Tashkent-based journalists have bribed organisers to win Uzbekistan’s national Gold Pen awards this year.
They are accused of sharing the prize money with the award organisers.
The award ceremony was held in Tashkent on 1 May for the fourth time. The award was initiated by Uzbek President Islam Karimov who has repeatedly demanded from local journalists bravery, honesty, accuracy and healthy criticism, but not sycophantic praise.
The organisers decided to reward journalists from the national television channel Uzbekiston for a series of programmes about human trafficking.
The head of the TV crew, Mamadamin Safarov, received the award and a money prize worth $3,680.
Regional journalists said that the present and past winners worked on state-run television in Tashkent and had connections and money.
“They have connections in the Gold Pen national award committee and the Union of Art Figures of Uzbekistan and fix bribes for nominations and awards with them in advance,” regional journalists said.
They added that they had learnt about this from their colleagues on state television.
A television journalist said on condition of anonymity that the prize winner should share half of the prize money with the organisers.
“All Uzbek television journalists know about this and share it with their other colleagues. This is a big money in Uzbekistan if we compare it with public-sector wages,” he said.
Another journalist said that some of her colleagues would not mind doing this because they wanted the prize to advance their careers.
She said that many journalists did not take part in the competition because they did not believe that the selection procedure was fair.
Moreover, independent journalists in Uzbekistan think that the very idea of awarding journalism prizes in the country that does not have free press and has jailed eight journalists, forcing dozens to flee the country, is ridiculous.
“This is absolutely cynical but in line with the Uzbek government’s policy,” an independent journalist from Tashkent said. He added that more ridiculous was the competition’s international status because foreigners could not take part in it.
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