{"id":9924,"date":"2021-01-18T18:28:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T18:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=151441"},"modified":"2021-01-18T18:28:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T18:28:26","slug":"turkmen-journalist-achilova-among-top-rights-prize-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/18\/turkmen-journalist-achilova-among-top-rights-prize-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkmen Journalist Achilova Among Top Rights Prize Finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 71-year-old Turkmen journalist has been nominated among three finalists for a prestigious human rights award for her reports from Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive countries in the world.<\/p>\n

The Martin Ennals Award<\/a><\/strong> for Human Rights Defenders in Geneva said on January 18 that Soltan Achilova “documents the human rights abuses and social issues affecting the Turkmen people in their daily lives.”<\/p>\n

The jury composed of 10 activist groups, including Amnesty International, recognized Achilova’s work in a country where “freedom of speech is inexistent and independent journalists work at their own peril.”<\/p>\n

“Despite the repressive environment and personal hardships, she is one of the very few reporters in the country daring to sign independent articles,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

Based in Ashgabat, Achilova is a contributor to the Vienna-based independent news website Khronika Turkmenistana (Chronicles of Turkmenistan), which focuses on news and developments in Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n

She has in the past worked as a reporter for RFE\/RL\u2019s Turkmen Service.<\/p>\n

Turkmen authorities, who don\u2019t tolerate an independent press, have targeted the journalist for her work.<\/p>\n

Achilova has been detained by police and physically assaulted by officers, thugs, and other unidentified assailants, while her relatives had also come under pressure by the authorities.<\/p>\n

The two other nominees for the Martin Ennals Award are leading Saudi advocate for women\u2019s rights Loujain Al-Hathloul and Chinese lawyer and human rights activist Yu Wensheng. Both of them are currently in jail.<\/p>\n

The statement said that the award ceremony “will celebrate their courage” during an online event co-hosted by the city of Geneva on February 11.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 71-year-old Turkmen journalist has been nominated among three finalists for a prestigious human rights award for her reports from Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive countries in\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,23,467,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9925,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924\/revisions\/9925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}