The OSCE website reports that on 11 February 2021, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM), Teresa Ribeiro, met with Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Austria Silapberdi Nurberdiev in Vienna to discuss co-operation of the Office of the RFoM with the authorities of Turkmenistan.
Ribeiro expressed her interest in visiting Turkmenistan and offered the expertise and assistance of her Institution in implementing Turkmenistan’s commitments regarding media freedom and freedom of expression.
Ambassador Nurberdiev reiterated the country’s pledge to implement fully its commitments in the human dimension sphere and invited the Representative to participate in the activities of the new Turkmen department of online journalism and communications. The Representative accepted the invitation.
Speaking of her Office’s engagement in permanent monitoring of media freedom in the OSCE participating States, Ribeiro requested additional information on the case of the blogger Nurgeldy Khalykov, who, in September 2020, was sentenced in Turkmenistan to four years in prison.
It has not been reported what the Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Austria responded.
Photo by: osce.org
Let us recall that a 26 year old Khalykov was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Khalykov was officially convicted for fraud but according to the news outlet “Turkmen News”, the real reason behind the conviction was sending a photo of WHO experts, who visited Turkmenistan in July 2020, to journalists.
Photo by: Turkmen.newsThe post The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media requests information on convicted blogger from the Ambassador of Turkmenistan first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.