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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Tajikistan
Index
At the time of independence, Tajikistan had several long-established
official newspapers that had been supported by the communist regime. These
included newspapers circulated throughout the republic in Tajik, Russian,
and Uzbek, as well as papers on the provincial, district, and city levels.
Beginning in 1991, changes in newspapers' names reflected political
changes in the republic. For example, the Tajik republican newspaper, long
known as Tojikistoni Soveti (Soviet Tajikistan), became first
Tojikistoni Shuravi (using the Persian word for "council"
or "soviet") and then Jumhuriyat (Republic). The
equivalent Russian-language newspaper went from Kommunist
Tadzhikistana (Tajikistan Communist) to Narodnaya gazeta
(People's News-paper). Under the changing political conditions of the
late-Soviet and early independence periods, new newspapers appeared,
representing such groups as the journalists' union, the Persian-Tajik
Language Foundation, cultural and religious groups, and opposition
political parties. After antireformists returned to power at the end of
1992, however, the victors cracked down on the press.
In the Soviet era, Tajikistan's magazines included publications
specializing in health, educational, rural, and women's issues, as well as
communist party affairs. Several were intended especially for children.
Literary magazines were published in both Russian and Tajik. The Academy
of Sciences of Tajikistan published five scholarly journals. In the
postindependence years, however, Tajikistan's poverty forced
discontinuation of such items. In the early 1990s, Tajikistan had three
main publishing houses. After the civil war, the combination of political
repression and acute economic problems disrupted many publication
activities. In this period, all of the country's major newspapers were
funded fully or in part by the government, and their news coverage
followed only the government's line. The only news agency, Khovar, was a
government bureau. Tajikistan drew international criticism for the
reported killing and jailing of journalists.
Data as of March 1996
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