Press watchdog urges release of Uzbek reporter

ALMATY, Feb 14 (Reuters) A press freedom watchdog today demanded the release of an independent journalist and human rights activist arrested in Uzbekistan.

Umida Niyazova, writing about politics and human rights in Uzbekistan for an independent Web site, wrote stories critical of suppression by government troops of an uprising in the Uzbek town of Andizhan in May 2005.

She also wrote articles that criticised the authoritarian regime of President Islam Karimov, said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organisation advocating free press worldwide.

Niyazova was arrested on January 22 and charged with illegal border crossing and smuggling of subversive literature. Each charge carries up to 10 years in prison.

''We call on Uzbek authorities to immediately release Umida Niyazova and to drop trumped-up charges against her,'' CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.

Uzbek police could not be immediately reached for comment.

''Following the Andizhan bloodshed, Karimov and his regime cracked down on independent journalists and human rights activists, driving independent reporters into exile, putting scores of government critics in jail and purging the country of alternative news outlets,'' CPJ quoted its research findings.

Uzbekistan became increasingly hostile to foreign charities and media outlets after Washington and Europe criticised the way it quelled the Andizhan riot, in which hundreds were killed, including women and children, according to witness accounts.

Ex-Soviet Uzbekistan has also expelled a US airbase and forged a close political and economic partnership with Russia.

President Islam Karimov's government says 187 people -- mainly ''terrorists'' and security forces -- died in Andizhan during an attempted coup by Islamist extremists.

Reuters KD GC1538