When Soltan Achilova decided to change her profession and become an independent journalist in Turkmenistan nearly two decades ago, she knew her new job would be “different” and require adjustments.
But the Ashgabat-based economist turned reporter did not imagine that her new profession was going to turn her “life upside down” and subject her to persecution, physical assaults, and death threats.
“State security agents have been following me since I started working as a journalist. They harass my family too, surveil our phone conversations,” Achilova, 74, told RFE/RL. “Electricity and water were cut off to our home several times. My relatives were threatened by authorities to stop talking to me or they would lose their jobs.”
Turkmenistan is consistently ranked by media watchdogs, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), among the worst countries in the world for press freedom.
Independent media outlets are nonexistent in the authoritarian Central Asian nation, where journalism “amounts only to praise for the regime,” according to RSF. The government continues a relentless clampdown on dissent -- with critics being harassed, beaten, tortured, jailed, and even killed. Many others have been forced abroad into self-exile.
Achilova, a correspondent for the European-based Khronika Turkmenistana website and a former RFE/RL reporter, is the last remaining independent journalist in Turkmenistan who openly criticizes the authoritarian government. A handful of others work secretly for some foreign-based outlets.
The recent death of 35-year-old former RFE/RL reporter Hudaiberdy Allashov -- whom Turkmen authorities had vowed to drive to “his grave” -- put the spotlight earlier this month on how Turkmenistan punishes journalists and their families for reporting news.
'You’ll Be Locked Up For A Long Time'
Allashov worked for three months for RFE/RL in 2016, reporting about issues like food shortages, forced labor in the cotton harvest, and wage arrears for state workers in his native region of Dashoguz.
The journalist and his mother, Kurbantach Arazmedova, were arrested in December 2016 and accused of possession of tobacco powder, which is banned but does not entail criminal penalties. It was a trumped-up charge widely seen as authorities’ punishment for Allashov’s work as a journalist.
Sources told RFE/RL at the time that Allashov was beaten and tortured with electric shocks while in custody.
Police also interrogated his wife, Ejesh Arazgylyjeva, and their two young children. Arazgylyjeva was also beaten by police for spreading information about her husband and mother-in-law’s arrest, according to sources close to law-enforcement agencies.
Following widespread condemnation by Western diplomats and international human rights groups, the journalist and his mother were released several months later after a court handed each a three-year, suspended prison sentence.
Allashov stopped working for RFE/RL, but the government’s harassment campaign against him did not stop.
Allashov was briefly arrested again in October 2019 in his hometown of Koneurgench and beaten during several hours of interrogation. His mother fell ill under the stress of her son’s arrest and died in hospital from a heart attack two days later.
Another interrogation followed the next month. Police released the journalist, but he was warned that the authorities would not leave him alone "until they drove him to his grave," he told RFE/RL.
In May 2022, Allashov and his wife were severely beaten by a group of city government employees and suffered injuries. There have never been any clear official charges against Allashov or any members of his family.
Allashov was arrested again in December 2023, when authorities reportedly told the journalist he was going to be “locked up for a long time.”
Amid an outcry by international human rights groups, Allashov was released after serving a 15-day administrative arrest. But the reporter’s health began to deteriorate due to his abusive treatment in custody, and he died on August 13.
People who knew Allashov blame his death on the physical and mental stress caused by the government’s eight years of ruthless persecution to punish him for his work as an independent journalist.#
Allashov’s death came 18 years after an RFE/RL reporter in Ashgabat, Ogulsapar Muradova, died in the Owadan-Depe Prison, a remote maximum-security facility in the Karakum Desert amid allegations of torture, including strangulation. Her body bore signs of ill-treatment.
Muradova, 58, had been convicted on the dubious charge of illegally possessing ammunition and sentenced to seven in years in prison after police claimed they found bullets in her car. Right groups say the criminal case against Muradova was retaliation for her work.
In June, independent journalist Nurgeldy Halykov was released after serving a four-year sentence for publishing a photo of a delegation of the World Health Organization visiting Turkmenistan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 was a sensitive subject in Turkmenistan where authorities insisted the country did not have a single case of infection.
Halykov, the Ashgabat reporter for the Europe-based independent news website Turkmennews, was found guilty of financial fraud. But his supporters deny the accusation and said it is a ploy against the journalist.
'Brainwashed' Youth
The Turkmen government targets every aspect of independent journalists’ lives to make it impossible for them to work and live in Turkmenistan, according to Achilova.
“When I try to contact people for information-gathering for my reports, security agents -- who follow me -- get in touch with those people, harass them, and order them not to speak to me,” she said, describing how officials try to limit her ability to follow a story.
“There are a small number of people who want their voices to be heard and talk to me about problems like electricity, water, or land issues, but a majority of people in Turkmenistan are too afraid to talk to the media,” the journalist said.
She believes that the climate of fear in Turkmenistan forces people to pretend “they don’t hear anything, see anything,” and “remain silent” in order to be safe from police.
Achilova has been beaten on the streets, interrogated, and threatened by police, and strip-searched at an airport and then barred from traveling abroad to attend an international conference.
Achilova’s profession has impacted her social life, too. Many friends, relatives, and neighbors have ceased contact with her after being officially warned about “the consequences.”
“When I go out to sit on the benches in front of our apartment building where the neighbors gather in the evenings, everybody leaves -- one by one,” Achilova said. “They know I am disliked by [the government]. They don’t want to be in trouble.”
She is concerned about the impact of the lack of free media and information on the country’s youth. The government has blocked access to almost all social media, messaging apps, and independent news websites.
“Many young people in Turkmenistan are brainwashed by the government ideology; they don’t know any other viewpoint,” Achilova said. “Freedom of speech or human rights is a myth for them.”
Despite the challenges, Achilova has vowed to continue reporting from Turkmenistan, “for as long as [she is] alive.” She believes her work will make a difference.
