Court dismisses case against journalist Rukhsora Gafurova

The administrative case against MY5 TV journalist Rukhsora Gafurova, who was accused of unlawfully disclosing personal information, has been dismissed. QALAMPIR.UZ has reviewed the official court documents.

The case was considered on April 2 at the Mirzo Ulugbek District Court for Criminal Cases.

According to the court documents, Gafurova was accused of unlawfully disclosing the personal information of G.B., an employee of the Jizzakh regional branch of Xalq Bank.

The case was dismissed based on the provisions of the Code of Administrative Responsibility. Specifically, Part 2 of Article 36 of the Code states that administrative offense cases must be considered within one month. Meanwhile, Part 7 of Article 271 outlines that if the time limit specified in Article 36 expires before the case is heard, the administrative proceedings cannot continue and must be terminated. Taking these legal provisions into account, the court ruled to terminate the case against Rukhsora Gafurova, citing the expiration of the time limits for imposing administrative penalties as set out in Article 36. In short, the case was closed due to a procedural delay in its consideration.

Background to the case

The case followed a journalistic investigation by Rukhsora Gafurova, a correspondent for MY5 TV, into allegations that a Xalq Bank employee in the Jizzakh region had issued loans under the names of several citizens and embezzled the funds. According to the applicants featured in the report, their salaries and pension payments had been withheld by the bank for two years to repay loans they had never taken out.

Following the investigation, an administrative case was launched—not against the bank employee accused of fraud, but against the journalist who reported on the matter. The case was initially scheduled to be reviewed on February 26 by the Mirzo Ulugbek District Court of Tashkent but was returned for further investigation.

The bank employee who was identified in the report filed a complaint, objecting to the disclosure of his identity. However, during the investigation, it emerged that it was the affected citizen—not the journalist—who had disclosed the employee’s name. The journalist’s lawyer argued that Gafurova had not violated any laws or disclosed personal information unlawfully.

According to the defense, Rukhsora Gafurova neither committed any administrative offense nor acted outside the legal framework in reporting the story.