TURKMENISTAN: RADIO LIBERTY REPORTERS FACING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000726 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: RADIO LIBERTY REPORTERS FACING TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS Classified By: CDA RICHARD E. HOAGLAND: 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Four RFE/RL reporters are attempting to travel out of Turkmenistan for training and meetings. One of the reporters was already prevented from leaving for training on April 24, but all believe they might be barred from traveling between now and June 15. Post delivered points to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urging the government to review any bans on travel by the four during a meeting on June 4 and reiterated the importance of allowing the group to travel during follow-up meeting on June 6. The Charge will again raise this issue with the Foreign Minister. (See Charge's comment in para eight.) END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Poloff met with RFE/RL reporters on May 28, May 30, and June 4 to discuss their ongoing efforts to travel abroad for training. Junior RFE/RL reporter Murat Nurmammedov said he was unexpectedly pulled from a flight to Istanbul on April 24 by immigration authorities. Later, officials at the immigration service quietly told him that "law enforcement officials" opposed his departure. They advised him to write to the Ministry of National Security requesting information on his travel restriction. He did so, but has not received a reply. ¶3. (C) Nurmammedov had also planned to fly to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on June 3 for a training seminar. He said, however, that RFE/RL officials in Prague recommended that he not attempt to travel on June 3, but instead exchange the tickets and try to depart for Bishkek on June 5. Fellow reporter Soltana Achilova also planned to travel at that time. ¶4. (C) Although Nurmammedov says he is unsure why authorities prevented his travel, he theorized that his relatively recent work for RFE/RL and his father's continued occasional contact with opposition circles may have played a part. Nurmammedov's father, Nurberdy Nurmammedov, headed the Agzybirlyk movement, an independent opposition movement established in 1989, but the movement has been inactive since ¶2000. Nurmammedov's father had been arrested in 2000 for engaging in anti-state activity, and Nurmammedov said he had met with an Embassy political officer several times seeking Post's assistance with the case. In connection with his father's arrest and eventual imprisonment, he also was arrested and charged with hooliganism. He received a two-year suspended sentence and five years, probation. The term of this sentence expired in 2007. In December 2006, the government was selecting candidates for the presidential election to replace the recently-deceased Niyazov. Exiled opposition members had raised the elder Nurmammedov, a former university professor, as a possible candidate on the Internet, and authorities immediately detained him until the selection process was over, seven days later. ¶6. (C) Poloff also spoke with Halmurat Gylychdurdiyev, who asked for the Embassy,s assistance in improving the odds that he and another reporter, Osmankuly Halliyev, would be able to depart successfully for Bishkek on June 15 to attend an RFE/RL-sponsored training seminar. Although he has not attempted to travel abroad in some time and has not verified that the government has banned him from overseas travel, he believes that he will be prevented from departing. His daughter, one of Post's local employees, was barred from traveling to Moscow for medical treatment in January 2008. END NOTE.) ¶7. (C) COMMENT: Nurmammedov might not be able to depart the country based on old affiliations and alleged criminal activity. Also, and the government could well believe that Achilova, who allegedly threatened last December to blow up the police station where she was being questioned, poses a security threat. While a person who allegedly threatened to blow up a police station might have trouble boarding a plane in some Western countries, having a relative who is a ASHGABAT 00000726 002 OF 002 government critic should not, ideally, be cause to prevent foreign travel. Post passed talking points urging the government to allow the RFE/RL reporters to travel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a June 4 meeting and reiterated the message during a June 6 meeting with MFA. Charge plans to meet with the Foreign Minister to press home the importance of allowing the repoters to travel for training. END COMMENT. ¶8. (C) CHARGE'S COMMENT: My team and I consistently advocate with the government for media freedom and other fundamental human rights. I understand Radio Liberty is an alternate source of information in countries that restrict or distort news and information. However, the practice of hiring dissidents as RFE/RL reporters unnecessarily feeds the Russian black propaganda machine and riles the paranoid security services in Central Asia. To better achieve our goals, it would seem Radio Liberty should consider these factors and attempt to hire reporters with at least minimal journalistic credentials who could make an effort to report objective news and information, which is the U.S. ideal. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND