DUSHANBE, October 9, 2009, Asia-Plus -- An international two-day conference, formally titled “Decriminalization of Defamation and Insult Offenses Is Important Step towards Development of Democracy in Society,” opened at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe today.

The conference is staged by public association Homa, Internews-Network Tajikistan, UN Democracy Fund, and OSCE Office in Tajikistan.  

The conference has brought together parliamentarians, lawyers, representative of the judicial system, and media from different states of the CIS to discuss issues related to the basis for criminalizing the defamation and insult laws, international aspects of this problem, features of legal responsibility of media and journalists for distribution of unreliable information, etc.

We will recall that Tajikistan’s Penal Code criminalizes defamation and insult laws. Article 135 stipulates that distribution of obviously false information defaming a person’s honor, dignity or reputation is punishable by up to years in jail; Article 136 stipulates that insult, that is, the abasement of honor and dignity, expressed in an indecent way, is punishable by 120 to 180 hours in correctional labor or fine in an amount of 200 to 500 minimal salaries.

In the meantime, attempts to decriminalize defamation and insult offenses had been made in other Central Asia’s states in the late 1990s already.  Thus, in Kyrgyzstan, such attempts have been made since 1997.