Police officers in provinces contacted the parents of journalists living and working in Tashkent about the publications and comments of their children on social networks. This situation happened, in particular, with the journalist of Gazeta.uz Shokhrukh Khaydarov, Gazeta.uz reported.
According to the journalist, early in the morning on December 9, he received a call from an unknown man who said that he was at his parents' house, asked where Shokhrukh himself was and when he would be at home, and stated that he needed to talk to him. “What happened, who are you after all,” I asked him. He replied that he was from the investigation and search department of the police department and that he was calling about a comment on Facebook,” Shokhrukh Khaydarov wrote on the social network.
“And then it all started. My poor mother doesn't really understand all this. Her blood pressure went up. My father got worried and called me,” he said.
The journalist said that a policemen told him: "If you come home on the weekend, call me and we'll talk."
The day before, on December 8, a similar incident happened to journalist Inobat Akhatova. She wrote that her mother had been summoned to the local district police department.
The woman was asked questions about her daughter's Facebook posts: "Why did she write this, and why did she say this in this post?" The questions concerned "opinions about growing beards, religion." However, the journalist said that she rarely writes on these topics.
“I am now 27. I am a citizen capable of being responsible for my actions, my words. Don't bother my parents anymore, whose health is very valuable to me. If you need to clarify something, ask me,” wrote Inobat Akhatova.
“Do they want to put moral pressure on my parents and me with such actions?” she asked, adding that Constitution Day 2022 will be remembered for this particular incident.
Members of the public expressed concern with what was happening. Blogger and adviser to the Minister of Justice Shakhnoza Soatova called the situation “very strange.”
“What is this - a misunderstanding, arbitrariness, isolated cases or an organized action? Why is it necessary to interrogate the mother of an adult person for his or her words, according to what logic and laws was this done? These questions need answers,” she wrote.
