UNESCO is the lead UN Agency for promoting freedom of expression and safety of journalists as part of its mandate to “promote the free flow of ideas by word and image”.
Mukarram Otamurodova
Lecturer, Faculty member at Journalism and mass communications university of Uzbekistan , Uzbekistan
Freedom of speech Journalists Physical threats Psychological safety Censorship
The research is a case study of journalists' safety in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan, one of the Central Asian countries, has faced socio-political changes in the last years, and the impact of these is reflected in the media landscape of the country. Several cases show that the issues of journalists' safety and gender equality are becoming more threatening. The research is a collection of real cases and their analysis for defining specific peculiarities of the issue. The author intended to investigate the types and sources of threats to journalists by learning how journalists suffer from political pressure, harassment, and physical or psychological threats.
Definition of journalists' safety
Journalists' safety is one of the most important dimensions or indicators of freedom of the press. Supporting safety for media professionals is a main effort for distributing and gaining fast, reliable, and objective information.Future plans for research on journalists' safety
There are so many aspects of the issue of journalists' safety that can be considered to do deep research. I am planning to investigate the issue not only in Uzbekistan but also in Central Asia, to learn the types and sources of threats for covering political, economic, or trans-bordered themes like the relationship between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Russia and etc. Because some cases show that Central Asian journalists are not free while covering these themes and are always under strong but invisible or soft censorship. There are some differences in the safety issues between local and international journalists in Uzbekistan and my future plans also include doing some research on this theme.- Research focuses:
- Physical, Psychological
- Methods used in research:
- Qualitative content analysis
- Countries of research focus:
- Uzbekistan, Central Asian countries
Areas interested in collaborating with NGOs
Collaborate with UNESCO for making workshops for journalists and media outlets in order to improve their awareness about journalists' safety, ways of protecting themselves from different kinds of threatsAreas interested in collaborating with other researchers
collaborating in doing some research of ways of supporting journalists' digital safety which is strengthening day by day in the world and investigating the role of international organizations for protecting journalists from legal threats. Co-authoring for new research and writing manuals for journalism faculties about journalists' safety
Mukarram Otamurodova
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
