DUSHANBE, January 4, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Ministers, department heads, and local officials will begin to give news conferences on the results of work carried out in 2012 on January 7.

The Ministry of Justice, the Committee for Sports, Youth and Tourism Affairs and the Council of Justice (Shuroi Adliya) will be the first to give the news conferences. 

We will recall that President Emomali Rahmon in March 2005 signed a decree obligating ministers, department heads, and local officials to give quarterly news conferences.

But by president’s decree issued in September 2011 ministers, department heads, and local authorities now give news conferences twice a year – in January and July.  The decree also notes that in case of necessity, ministers and department heads may give news conferences several times a month.

Commenting on this decree, chairman of the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit) Nouriddin Qarshiboyev noted that it would deteriorate the already difficult access to the socially significant information in the country.

“The quarterly news conferences were one of the main ways of getting first-hand information, though they were mainly like reports of ministries and departments on the work done,” the media watchdog head stressed.

Chairman of Tajik Journalists’ Unit (TJU) Akbarali Sattorov considers that the quarterly news conference were a good initiative of the president, though the quality of those news conferences left much to be desired.

Meanwhile, the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) endorsed a new bill on the periodical press and other mass media on December 12, 2012.  Under the new media law, all media outlets in Tajikistan will be registered as legal entities and public agencies will have to answer journalist inquiries within three days.  Tajik officials say the new media law meets requirements of international norms and standards of freedom of speech.