To Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists Ms. Elisabeth Costa, Editor-in-chief of Hürriyet Daily News newspaper Mr.Murat Yetkin.

The primary task of the journalist is to ensure citizen’s right to accurate and objective information through truthful coverage of events, when facts are reported in proper context indicating correlation of various phenomena without distortions, being creatively processed by the journalist. In such a case, the public has a possibility to form a true picture of real developments through access to accurate information, in which roots and nature of events, development process and current state of facts are objectively reflected. (Objective coverage is the journalist’s duty – International Principles of Professional Ethics in Journalism).

On December 8, 2013, Turkish English-language newspaper Hürriyet Daily News published an interview with Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan President titled “My Life like The Magnificent Century”, “First Daughter of Uzbekistan Gulnara Karimova strikes back at recent claims”. In pursuit of “sensation”, Asli Baris, a journalist of the newspaper, acted unprofessionally by publishing information obtained by e-mail without bothering herself to contact Karimova and check the facts provided by her.

Covering events, a journalist should use only those facts that have been established by him/her personally. A journalist should provide a factual side of his/her reports based on credible sources and information. A journalist should be on a string of the public opinion or influential people not to become a subject of manipulation.

Hürriyet Daily News newspaper, being aware of Gulnara Karimova’s reputation as well as of the entire family of President Karimov, who has been oppressing his nation for 25 years, gave Gulnara Karimova an opportunity to use the press to sort out her relations with her opponents. Gulnara Karimova’s words contain a lot of lies and slander. She shamelessly and brazenly slandered me, thus causing great damage to my reputation.

In her interview to the Turkish media outlet, Gulnara mentioned our visit to her mansion in Geneva in March 2013. I would remind that when she filed a complaint with the police in Geneva stating that Tadjibayeva and her colleagues tried to illegally enter the house, encroaching on the privacy and property of persons with diplomatic status. Those days, Karimova wrote in her blog and on several websites controlled by her that she “had a video” with our invasion of her house, but she failed to submit this video to the police. After a thorough investigation, Geneva General Prosecutor’s Office did not find a corpus delicti in my actions and made an appropriate decision.

The video made by our colleagues during the visit to Gulnara Karimova’s mansion and presented to the public, proves the false accusation of the Uzbek president’s daughter.

Shortly after that, Gulnara Karimova slandered me for the second time saying that I broke a car window in the garage of the Uzbekistan mission at the UN Geneva office. Then the Geneva police conducted its own investigation and was able to expose another lie and slander of Gulnara proving that the window of the Uzbekistan mission car was broken on the parking lot near the international airport in Geneva and that the given case was not a political attack but a common act of hooliganism.

Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan President, is the most hated figure in Uzbekistan; she built a relationship between the power, business and criminals using the power of her father, she has managed to seize all more or less promising businesses in the country. That was how U.S. diplomats reported in their dispatches, according to documents released by WikiLeaks.

The Turkish newspaper journalist displays Gulnara as a victim of a totalitarian regime, who decided to enter into confrontation with the intelligence services of the country. In fact, Gulnara is an integral part of Karimov’s regime, who until recently was oppressing the Uzbek people plundering their riches. In consequence of criminal acts of Gulnara, investigations were initiated in several European countries in relation to Gulnara Karimova connected with the case of laundering huge amount of money by her partners.

International human rights organization Fiery Hearts Club has been exposing criminal acts of the Karimov regime for a long time. We conduct monitoring, publish topical stories on our www.jarayon.com website as well as analytical materials and investigative reports about events in regard of violation of human rights in Uzbekistan, other Central Asian countries and the CIS.

Wanting to revenge and hurt me, Gulnara Karimova slandered me in her interview to Asli Baris, a journalist from Hürriyet Daily News newspaper. One of her most gross and barefaced statements says that it was me, who organized a meeting at the Rehabilitation Center of the Internal Affairs Department in Tashkent, met and made a video with Yanis Galanos, her employee, a Greek citizen. In fact, it was Vasilya Inoyatova, the head of Ezgulik, an Uzbek human rights society, who talked with Yanis Galanos. Later, the given organization released the video to all media outlets covering events in Uzbekistan.

Given the realities of Uzbekistan, such operations are carried out only by coordination with and under watchful supervision of the National Security Service (SNB) of the country. Gulnara Karimova brazenly accuses me of being a servant of the secret services as well as part of a large criminal community with a certain role in it.

These accusations of Gulnara Karimova are gross libel and insult, which by the standards of international law is a crime and for which she should receive a punishment.

For a number of years, I have been performing human rights work, defending the rule of law.

I was arrested on October 7, 2005 and charged with 18 articles of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan for my civic stand, belief in human rights, democracy and justice as well as for my demand that the Uzbek authorities conduct an independent investigation into the shooting of peaceful demonstrators on May 13, 2005 in the city of Andizhan. In March 2006, I was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment. When I was imprisoned, the authorities were doing everything possible so that I recognize myself a criminal and sign a clemency plea to submit to dictator Islam Karimov. But I refused to do so.

When I became a winner of the Martin Ennals Award and after the international community put a lot of pressure, the Uzbek authorities were forced to release me from the prison. Systematic tortures and torments applied against me during the whole period of my imprisonment left severe and indelible consequences on my body and in my soul.

At present, I live in France, having a political refugee status. I continue performing my human rights work, fighting against crimes of the current regime. I consider it is absolute madness that Gulnara tries to convince everyone that I can safely arrive in Tashkent, moreover, I can meet with a victim of tortures, who has been detained, and interview him.

I left my homeland five years ago, and these days I do not have an opportunity to travel to Uzbekistan, and I was declared persona non grata in the countries neighboring with Uzbekistan.

Hürriyet Daily News newspaper, by having provided an opportunity for an interview to the daughter of the dictator, and even without preliminary study of all the details, is a media outlet that indirectly supports the authoritarian regime.

I would like to draw attention of the readers to one circumstance. After Galima Bukharbayeva, the head of the www.uznews.net information agency communicated with Gulnara Karimova on Twitter and wrote her that she had slandered me, Gulnara Karimova’s statement was removed from the interview, which said that “It is a setting of Mutabar Tadjibayeva”. By these actions, the management of Hürriyet Daily News newspaper confirmed its neglect of the Declaration of Principles on the Conduct of Journalists.

Information in journalism is considered not as a convenience, but as a social good. This means that the journalist is responsible for provided information and bears responsibility not only before those, who control the mass media, but also before the public as a whole. The social responsibility of the journalist requires that he/she acts in accordance with his/her personal ethical standards.

Based on paragraph 5 of the Declaration of the International Federation of Journalists on Principles of Conduct of Journalists, which says “the journalist shall do the utmost to rectify any published information which is found to be harmfully inaccurate”, I call Hürriyet Daily News newspaper to rectify the mistakes.

The published interview spreads deliberate false information discrediting my honor, dignity and business reputation.

I declare with all responsibility that the published interview has caused me not only moral, but also significant physical suffering. Hürriyet Daily News should immediately publish denials in the English and Turkish languages on the same page in the volume equivalent to Gulnara Karimova’s interview. This material may be in the form of an interview with me.

I demand Gulnara Karimova, the newspaper’s management and journalist Asli Baris to present their apologies on pages of Hürriyet Daily News for moral and physical suffering.

I want to receive an answer to the following question: “What benefits did journalist Asli Baris get from promoting Islam Karimov’s eldest daughter by publishing her interview with ​​22 pictures of hers in the Internet?”

As denial, I request to publish in http://fotoanaliz.hurriyet.com.tr photos with comments of 22 convicted political prisoners in Uzbekistan, who became victims of tortures in prisons.

In case my requirements are not fulfilled as soon as possible, I will have to sue Gulnara Karimova, Hürriyet Daily News editorial staff and journalist Asli Baris in order to defend my honor, dignity and business reputation.

I have decided to spend the claimed financial compensation for my moral and physical suffering on struggle against the Uzbek authoritarian regime, assistance to victims of tortures and their family members, defense of political prisoners and their family members as well as victims of illegal detentions and unfair trials.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

Head of “Fiery Hearts Club”, an international human rights association

December 16, 2013

Paris, France