CPJ grants Bukharbaeva with 2005 Press Freedom Award

UzLand.Info October 18 The Committee to Protect Journalists has named three journalists and a media lawyer as recipients of this year's Press Freedom Awards. Reporter Galima Bukharbaeva of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting won the award for risking her life to cover the brutal Uzbek government crackdown on protesters in the city of Andijan last May. The committee says Ms. Bukharbaeva is now in exile in the United States and faces criminal prosecution in Uzbekistan for her reporting. Galima Bukharbaeva has drawn international attention to the Uzbek government's authoritarian policies, earning a reputation as one of Central Asia's most outspoken journalists. Her work for the London-based Institute for War & Peace Reporting focused on sensitive issues such as police torture, repression of Islamic activists, and state-sponsored abuses against journalists and human rights activists. As a result, Bukharbaeva was placed under police surveillance, denied press accreditation, and threatened with prosecution. The government organized Soviet-style "protests" in the capital, Tashkent, denouncing her as a traitor. Bukharbaeva was one of the few journalists to witness and report on the May 13 massacre in the northeastern Uzbek city of Andijan. A bullet tore through her backpack, piercing her notebook and press pass, when troops opened fire on demonstrators. As a result of her reporting, state media accused her of "conducting open information warfare against the state." Facing government reprisals, she fled the country and lives in New York City, where she is studying at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.