RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reporting on the Uzbekistan’s practice of forced cotton picking led to some local officials to withdraw from the practice.
The service has extensively reported on the practice, producing stories, videos and interactive graphic maps to document how many Uzbek, from children to doctors, are pulled out of work and school to pick cotton. In central Samarkand province, college students have been drafted to pick cotton.
Because of the RFE/RL reporting, local officials in the province withdrew the students from the cotton fields.