TURKMENISTAN: DAS BARKS-RUGGLES VISIT HIGHLIGHTED IN

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 001379 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID ECON KPAO TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DAS BARKS-RUGGLES VISIT HIGHLIGHTED IN WESTERN/LOCAL PRESS ¶1. (U) SUMMARY. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Erica Barks-Ruggles visited Turkmenistan December 6-9, 2007. State media highlighted her meetings at Turkmenistan's ministries and government agencies. "Reuters" gave accurate coverage of the visit, focusing on a post-conducted press conference with the Deputy Assistant Secretary. END SUMMARY. STATE MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS BARKS-RUGGLES VISIT ¶2. (U) On December 7, pro-government website TURKMENISTAN.RU (Russian, English) reported the arrival in Turkmenistan of a delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Erica Barks-Ruggles and outlined the schedule of official meetings. On December 8, state "Watan" TV news program (Turkmen) gave positive coverage on the delegation's meetings at Turkmenistan's National Parliament, Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Council on Religious Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Central Electoral Commission, emphasizing that the delegation was briefed about the current status of reform in Turkmenistan. Video excerpts showed Barks-Ruggles talking to government officials. On December 10, state dailies "Neutral Turkmenistan" (Russian, circ. 39,061) and "Turkmenistan" (Turkmen, circ. 29,091) carried articles similar in content to "Watan" State TV news. ACCURATE REPORTING ON BARKS-RUGGLES MESSAGE ¶3. (SBU) Reuters' December 10 article on the Barks-Ruggles visit accurately carried quotes from her December 8 press-conference with foreign media stringers, emphasizing that the United States urged Turkmenistan to take more active steps to improve human rights protection. The article underlined Barks-Ruggles message on the need for more open judicial proceedings and urged Turkmenistan's government to review prison sentences held in closed courts under Niyazov. It also noted her message on the need to ease media control, improve activist organizations registration, the importance of access to information and State Department concern over foreign travel restrictions for citizens of Turkmenistan. ¶4. (U) COMMENT: Despite the overlapping, high-level visits of the Turkish and Tajik presidents, state media covered the lower-level Barks-Ruggles visit which focused on a less comfortable subject matter: human rights. State media have continued a path of increasing comfort with human rights issues in addition to the positive portrayal of U.S.-Turkmenistan relations. While frank discussion of human rights or even criticism of the government is still taboo, the Barks-Ruggles visit demonstrated the continuing and gradual expansion of state media's coverage. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND