Crisis Communication in Authoritarian Regimes: The Case of Andjan Tragedy in Uzbekistan

On May 13, 2005, Andijan, eastern city of Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic of Central Asia, attracted the world's attention. News ran through the channels of mass media from BBC to CNN reporting that the Uzbek government crushed a civilian demonstration and killed several hundreds of people. The international community, including the U.S. and the EU, harshly condemned the acts of the government. The crisis communication strategies applied by the government to justify its actions and to diminish the damages of the tragedy as well as to repair its broken image failed. In this thesis project, I analyzed the Uzbek government's crisis communication strategies through the lens of Benoit's Image Restoration Theory. By identifying the factors responsible for the failure, I proposed that the government could have reduced the damage of the crisis if the communication strategies had been carried out properly in accordance with the Image Restoration theory principles.Master of Art