Uzbekistan’s Transformation: Strategies and Perspectives

participate, and the media landscape has been visibly 
liberalised, the expectation is that civil engagement 
will adhere to the reform script as interpreted by the 
official organs. To back up this process, the latter have 
initiated the founding of “NGOs” whose role is to en-
sure that freedom of expression is used as intended 
and civil society engagement remains within bounds.
152
The limits of the new civil liberties rapidly become 
apparent where criticism takes an unexpected – 
usually meaning undesirable – turn. In such cases 
it also becomes obvious that the entrenched mecha-
nisms of repression are still effective. Torture, namely, 
remains an everyday occurrence in Uzbek prisons.
153
151 “Poslanie Prezidenta Respubliki Uzbekistan Shavkata 
Mirzieeva Oliy Mazhlisu” [Address to parliament by the Presi-
dent of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev], 
22 December 2017, https://president.uz/ru/lists/view/1371. 
Similar: “Vystuplenie Prezidenta Respubliki Uzbekistan 
Shavkat Mirzieeva na pervom zasedanii zakonodatel’noy 
palaty Oliy Mazhlisa” [Speech by the President of the Repub-
lic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the first session of 
the legislative chamber of parliament], 20 January 2020, 
https://president.uz/ru/lists/view/3303 (both accessed 12 July 
2020). 
152 See above, p. 13 (DSC), p. 20 f. (NGO Yuksalish) and 
p. 22 f. (Public Fund for Support and Development of National 
Mass Media). 
153 “Uzbekistan: Blogger Flees Country, Cites Pressure 
from Authorities”, Eurasianet, 21 January 2020, https:// 
eurasianet.org/uzbekistan-blogger-flees-country-cites-
pressure-from-authorities. On the prisons: Aziz Jakubov, 
“Etapom v Navoiy – zla nemereno” [Prisoner in Navoiy – 
a centre of evil], Fergana, 27 November 2019, https://fergana.