Uzbekistan’s Transformation: Strategies and Perspectives

105 BBC Monitoring Central Asia, Highlights from Central 
Asian Press, Websites, 27 June 2019. 
106 Examples: “Uzbekistan: Government Still Restricting 
Free Reporting”, Eurasianet, 10 October 2019, https://eurasia 
net.org/uzbekistan-government-still-restricting-free-reporting 
(accessed 11 July 2020); “Facebook User ‘Abducted, Beaten’ 
for Comments”, BBC Monitoring Central Asia, Highlights from 
Central Asian Press, Websites, 17 December 2019. 
107 “Uzbekistan: Tashkent Mayor’s Outburst Shocks 
Reporters”, Eurasianet, 18 November 2019, https://eurasia 
net.org/uzbekistan-tashkent-mayors-outburst-shocks-
reporters (accessed 11 July 2020). 
108 “‘No Signs of Crime’ in Uzbek Mayor’s Threats to 
Reporters”, BBC Monitoring Central Asia, 27 November 2019. 
109 “Uzbekistan: Tashkent Mayor’s Outburst” (see note 107). 
110 Ukaz Prezidenta Respubliki Uzbekistan: Strategii Deystviy 
(see note 36), items 6–8. 

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Domestic Political Anchoring 
SWP Berlin 
Uzbekistan’s Transformation 
September 2020 
22 
media in information-gathering, communicating with 
state instances and ensuring that reporting is “con-
structive”.
111
Media receive targeted state support as long as they 
fulfil these conditions. In August 2019 more than one 
hundred popular bloggers and influencers from across 
the world were invited to Uzbekistan to promote 
the country as a tourist destination. The Uzbek state 
spent about US$250,000 on the event, hoping that the 
influencers’ huge followings would create a signifi-
cant marketing effect.
112
The president himself met 
with the bloggers to explain Uzbekistan’s “politics of 
openness” and to convey his expectation that they 
would present his reform policies in a positive light.
113
In the same vein, the press departments of public 
bodies are instructed to respond to critical reporting 
rather than ignoring it. On the one hand they are 
supposed to take criticism seriously, verify its veracity 
and convey it to the responsible instances; on the 
other they are encouraged to provide the media with 
material enabling them to “correct” their reports.
114
Active media policy is the motto. 
In December 2019 the registration of television and 
radio stations and print and digital media was simpli-
fied in the interest of better interaction between state 
agencies and mass media. Licence applications no 
longer have to be presented to AIMK in a cumber-
some and time consuming procedure, but can be sub-
mitted at the service centres that have been set up 
across the country since 2018 to centralise and digi-
talise information flows and transactions between 
politics, administration and citizens. The relevant 
resolution, which was prepared by AIMK, also intro-
duced a series of arrangements designed to give 
journalists better protection against the authorities.
115
The media policy is a good example of the ambiva-
lence of the Uzbek reform programme. Liberalisation