Mihra Rittmann who is the Senior Researcher, Central Asia, for Human Rights Watch (HRW) had this report:

Uzbekistan’s parliament is considering worrying amendments to the country’s Criminal and Administrative Codes, and to its Informatization Law, that could threaten the right to free speech.

On February 12, the head of the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) party, Alisher Qodirov, whose party helped draft the bill, published excerpts of it and informed his Telegram channel subscribers that the bill had already been adopted in its first reading in parliament. A February 15 statement on the bill by the Oily Mazhlis, Uzbekistan’s parliament, provided some additional context, including that legislators want to increase sanctions for disseminating information that allegedly threatens state security.

Unacceptably, the draft law still hasn’t been published in full, so we don’t know what other provisions are in there. But looking at those parts which have been made public, there is good reason to be concerned.

Read the full article here.