It's making the rounds of the news: the death of another journalist in Central Asia. Mr. Alisher Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek journalist who lived in Kyrgyzstan, has been killed. He was 26 years old, and he was shot three times in the head and chest.
Mr. Saipov had begun to print an independent newspaper in the Uzbek language, which was printed in Kyrgyzstan and smuggled over the border. This newspaper, or any one like it, would constitute the only “independent press” inside the state. Two weeks ago, Uzbek television identified him as an enemy of the state, and showed his picture. The rumors were that his death was worth USD 10 thousand dollars. Now someone will collect.
Natalia Antalava at the Guardian has a requiem written for her friend and associate Mr. Saipov–and since she knew him, she can do a better job than I can of talking about his work. One thing is clear: it is life-threatening to be a journalist in Central Asia.
Ferghana.ru has an article which deconstructs the unspoken warning to other journalists:
Moreover, local journalists and analysts believe that whoever ordered Alisher's assassination aimed to do away with a man who was a thorn in their hide and, also importantly, to intimidate his colleagues and all of the population of southern Kyrgyzstan. That is why the assassination was brazen and arrogant. Alisher had often worked late hours, calling it a day at 2 or 3 a.m. which made him an easy mark. But no, the assassins were ordered to murder Alisher almost in broad daylight and in a public place, so as to make a point and make other dissenters wary.
According to the same Ferghana.ru article, some Kyrgyz officials are up in arms–not about the crime itself–but that journalists always raise up to protect their own, while folks in other businesses and occupations die without the outcry. The thing is, once there are no journalists, there is no journalism. There is no free press to tell us what the political and economic forecasts are, where the traffic jam is, and who got the money. The implications of Mr. Saipov's death–along with the deaths of so many dedicated journalists–becomes a warning to each and every citizen: don't pay attention to what your leaders do. It is at once a human tragedy and a tragedy for two nations, a strike against the idea of democracy and the goal of transparency.
It means so many things to all of us, and to Mr. Saipov's family it means even more. According to the news, Mr. Saipov was a new father. His wife is seventeen years old.
