An editorial in the Uzbek opposition news agency website alleges that the Uzbek services of Radio Liberty, the Voice of America and the BBC World Service have been under the control of the Uzbek National Security Service. It says that the allegation is based on facts and analyses. The report also describes Uzbek journalists working for these foreign radio stations as illiterate people who “do not even know the rudiments of the Uzbek grammar”.
The following is an excerpt from report “Once again about the Uzbek services of Radio Liberty and the BBC”, published by the Harakat news agency website on 30 November; a subheading inserted editorially:
In our previous reports, we said that, during a meeting at the US Department of State, [Uzbek] opposition leaders, among other things, raised the issue concerning the Uzbek services of Radio Liberty and the Voice of America. As you know our reporters also implied that along with the above radio stations, the Uzbek service of the BBC [World Service] was under control of the Uzbek National Security Service. Since the allegations were based on facts and on analyses, nobody has had questions about them. And now it is nobody’s secrete that the Uzbek broadcasts of the radio stations have become the rostrum of those who discredit the [Uzbek] opposition, and that journalists working for these radio stations are illiterate and do not even know the rudiments of the Uzbek language grammar.
One can find many examples corroborating this accusation in programmes they broadcast these days.
[Passage omitted: the author points to grammatical mistakes and inaccuracies in reports presented by Radio Liberty correspondent identified as Zamira]
One may turn a blind eye to the fact that illiterate journalists are engaged in fleecing the Americans out of their money, but showing disrespect for Uzbek radio listeners is an unforgivable offence.
BBC
And now let’s look at the work of the BBC. It is as clear as daylight that not a single person there knows the Uzbek grammar well. But at least they should have been good at politics. The other day they invited a certain Safar Bekjon, whom they introduced as a “human rights defender”, to discuss current relations between the European Union and Uzbekistan. This person, who is capable of nothing but uttering a few general and demagogic phrases that would puzzle anyone, would only discredit the radio station. It is true that it is their own business. But the aim of the radio station that is under the control of the Uzbek National Security Service is to stain the good name of human rights campaigners as well.
[Passage omitted: the report quotes an opposition Erk party official as accusing Safar Bekjon of stealing an ancient coin from a museum; it also alleges that a BBC Uzbek Service reporter is an Uzbek security service spy]
(Source: Harakat website in Uzbek 30 Nov 06 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)