Threats to Journalists: Tajikistan

Abdumumin Sherkhonov, a correspondent with the Tajik service, was summoned on February 3, 2010 for questioning by the country’s Prosecutor General several weeks after publishing a report on the murder of a soldier. The regional military “commissar” had confronted Sherkhonov at the journalist’s office in the city of Kulyob on an earlier occasion, warning him at knife-point to drop the story. Sherkhonov said the summons was related to the interests of regional officials who are involved in corruption and murder. In addition to contributing to RFE/RL, Sherkhonov is editor in chief of the independent Pazhvok newspaper.
On January 8, 2009, Sherkhonov was beaten on his way to work in an attack that he attributes to his journalism. Three men stopped him, one of whom reportedly introduced himself as an official of the Interior Ministry, threatened him with arrest and beat him.