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