DUSHANBE, March 6, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Dushanbe’s Economic Court has adjourned hearing over Tojiron’s libel lawsuit against independent Dushanbe newspaper, Imrouz News (News Today), and a lawyer from Sughd province, Ms. Fayziniso Vohidova, until later date.

“The hearing that was set for March 11 was adjourned on March 5 until March 14,” Imrouz News editor-in-chief Naziri Nusrat told Asia-Plus in an interview.

According to him, the adjournment was ordered because the judge who is considering the hearing will participate in a seminar on March 11.

Ms. Vohidova, however, considers that this is a mere pretext.  “Their conscience just woke up,” said the lawyer.  “I consider they have changed their mind following a number of critical articles about consideration of lawsuit against the newspaper on the Tajik Press Day, which is marked on March 11.”

We will recall that some local journalists have decided to attend the first hearing over Tojiron’s libel lawsuit against Imrouz News and Ms. Fayziniso Vohidova instead of attending a government event dedicated to the Tajik Press Day.  Discussions on this subject have been carried out on Facebook.

Tojiron Company filed a libel lawsuit against Imrouz News and Ms. Fayziniso Vohidova in late February, asking for 1.00 somoni from the newspaper and 50,000 somoni from Ms. Fayziniso Vohidova as compensation of moral damage that was allegedly caused by an article published by the newspaper.

Representative of Tojiron noted that since Tojiron was a legal entity, its lawyers had decided to file the lawsuit in Dushanbe’s Economic Court.

An article “Murdafurushi dar Shirkati Tojiron” that was published in the newspaper on January 17 has become the cause of the lawsuit.  The article was about a fatal traffic accident, involving one of Tojiron’s gasoline tankers, which took place on the Dushanbe-Khujand highway.

Meanwhile, editorial staff of Imrouz News noted that they published a disclaimer 15 days after the article was published.