2023 press conference excerpts.

State institutions held press conferences on the 2022 results from January to February 17 of this year. According to the Decree of the President of the country, state institutions are put to obligation to hold press conference twice a year. How were the press conferences and did journalists get answers to their questions? We asked journalists about it.

Juma, "Asia plus" news agency reporter.
Year after year, the heads of ministries and departments seek new ways to avoid answering journalists. If before the first leaders didn’t show up at the press conferences or refused to give statistics, this year the situation has completely changed. Now, ministers and presidents deny journalists' questions at press conferences, ignore them, and even in most cases do not allow their deputies to answer questions. Such a situation happened at the press conference of the Ministry of Education and Science, where Rahim Saidzoda not only denied the repeated questions of journalists about the lack of teachers in education system, but also did not allow one of his deputies to answer the journalists' questions.

Another interesting point is that official data which was available to public have disappeared at all. In particular at the press conference of the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Social Protection of the Population the statistics about the Tajik immigrants were not provided to journalists, while such statistics were out to public years ago.

Statistics on the volume and price of electricity exported to Afghanistan were available years ago, however this year it became "inaccessible" to journalists. The statistics of the main investors of Tajikistan in 2022 also "disappeared" in the press release of the State Investment and State Property Management Committee.

Putting responsibility on each other is another feature of the officials. When Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment were asked about the number of tajik prisoners, they put the responsibility of gathering such data on Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs responded by saying it is not within their jurisdiction. So did the prosecutor's office. In the end, the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for the maintenance of prisons in the country, answered this question and said that they do not have such statistics, it is not within their jurisdiction, and we should ask the General Prosecutor's Office. Thus, the official data about the Tajik prisoners in Russia is not available to journalists and the public does not have any information about Tajiks serving in Russia. This is at a time when there is daily news about the killing of Tajik prisoners who are serving their sentence in Russia during the war in Ukraine, and so far the coffins of 14 Tajik prisoners have been brought home from the battlefields and buried. According to their relatives most are taken to the war by force and some in exchange for amnesty.

40 minutes recitation of the press release that is already available to journalists, disallowing more than two questions to the officials, formal clothes and answering question in native language were among other official data from the authorities, and as it seems it is getting inaccessible and unnecessary day by day.

Journalists themselves are not innocent as well.

If before journalists asked secondary questions, this year they asked personal questions by raising the authorities in the eyes of the public, trying in every way to limit time to others for questions.

In particular, the time was devoted to secondary questions and the minister himself for almost an hour at the press conference of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the population of Tajikistan. When it came to the real questions, the minister called that the given time was over and because of the protest of journalits the minister answered to only few important questions such as the lack of the professionals in the field.

Abdurahmon Rahmonov, "Avesta" news agency correspondent.
The level and quality of the press conference of each ministry or committee depends on the minister or its chairman. If the minister or the chairman or the director is confident in himself, he will answer all the questions of the journalists and even present facts. The Minister of Health Jamoliddin Abudullozoda answered journalists' questions for half an hour more than the scheduled time this year. He provided facts and date without paper which not everybody can. The press conference of the Committee on Religion, Regulation of Traditions and Celebrations started with questions and answer as proposed by the chairman of the committee Sulaymon Davaltzoda. The session of the General Prosecutor's Office, which lasted 14 minutes last year, lasted up to 45 minutes and even more this year. The Prosecutor General Yusuf Ahmadzod did not leave a single question without answer. Of course, some got answers and did not to their questions which depended on the question and its proof. Compared to the previous meetings three or four years ago, there is a big difference between the last two years. Earlier journalists were brave! The press conferences are always interesting when the journalists are prepared. Honestly, I don't know what kind of fear I felt in the organization of journalists at the meetings this time. Either the journalists are careful or...

Farzona Murodi, reporter from Sugd region
Year after the numbers of these meetings are decreasing. At the six-month meeting of 2022, I asked the head of the Sugd region, Rajabboy Ahmadzoda to force the structures that ignore the order of the President to hold press conference at the annual meeting. Among them the key structures are the regional internal affairs, the Regional Administrative Court of the Republic of Tajikistan, electricity networks and others. The annual meeting was concluded, however the situations remains the same. Another problem is the planning of the meeting which to have several structures at the same time. Two or three cities and districts have meetings at the same time that are more important than others. Some editorial offices have a large number of employees who can join all the meetings. However it makes it hard for state or foreign editorial that has only one representative in the region.

I suggest that they take into account the mentioned problem when planning the press conferences. For example, in Sugd Region the water, agriculture, ecology and land management committees held meetings at the same time. Each leader will speak for 10 minutes. Imagine that 80 percent of the time is spent on the report, and they are not reading anything new, but the same newsletter that is available to us. What do 25-30 journalists do with the remaining 20 minutes? Neither a complete question nor an exact answer. Again, these four structures have a wide range of activities.

Khurshed Fozilov, reporter from Panjakent.
The press sessions of previous years went well. First, the mayor of the city used to conduct and instruct each branch to hold a separate meeting. This was until 2018. Then all similar fields were combined. For example, agriculture, land, irrigation, forestry. Then it disappeared, and some leaders either did not hold meetings or did not come to meetings.

This year, only the mayor of Panjakent held a meeting and did not answer all the questions. Moreover, time was limited and some journalists could not ask questions. In conclusion, the level and quality of press conferences in Panjakent is unsatisfactory from my point of view.

Let the leaders participate, each branch hold a press conference and do not avoid the media. They are committed.

Jahongirshoh Rustamshoh, reporter from Khatlon region
The press meetings in Kulob region were held in some way. Some of them came to the meeting without preparation and others with preparation. The press conference is losing its importance, it is not serious. Some journalists stand up instead of asking questions and praise the chairman or delay the time. Most of the journalists come to the meeting without preparation and have less knowledge about the organization's activities.

We suggest that all press conferences should be conducted via live broadcast. The responsibility of holding press conferences should be entrusted to an influential institution. All press conferences should be broadcasted from the beginning to the end on state and local television.

Rukhshona Khakimova, NANSMIT Monitoring Service.