''Murder in Samarkand'' (published in the US under the title ''Dirty Diplomacy'') is a non-fiction book by British activist and former ambassador to

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

Craig Murray Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a Scottish author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Between 2002 and 2004, he was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan during whi ...

. The book forms an account of his period as the British ambassador in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

in 2002–2004. The work explains how Murray sacrificed his diplomatic career to speak out against the Karimov administration's suppression of

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

and British double standards over torture in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Publishing difficulties

The book was originally published by Mainstream (Edinburgh) in 2006 but only after several battles. Before its publication, many potential readers had been contacted through Internet posts and e-mail listings to raise interest and by creating a body of public opinion, to guard against the publisher being 'bullied' out of printing the book by government pressure. These communications also mentioned how supporting government documents which were originally planned for inclusion had been forcibly removed because of copyright laws. This, despite Murray's assertions that many had received a formal release and thus should have been within the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. Their forced removal, Murray has said, is the government "trying to claw back the very limited gains in

Freedom of Information Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigeno ...

in the UK", especially attempts to close websites on which the supporting documents were posted instead. Though many attempts to do this have proved successful, media interest has also meant that the documents frequently re-surface on mirror sites.

Cover controversy

A minor controversy involved the choice of photographs on the 2007 paperback edition, two of the three photos having been the same as those previously appearing in the 2004 ''

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embarked ...

'' guide to Central Asia by Bradley Mayhew, Paul Clammer and

Michael Kohn Michael Thomas Kohn (born June 26, 1986) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the 13th round (409th overall) of the 2008 Major League Baseball draft after playing college baseball at the ...

. Neither shows

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...

. The rear cover of ''Murder in Samarkand'' uses the same photo of

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

that was the guide book's cover photo. Murray's front cover uses a sunset scene that had appeared on page 7 of the guide (and shows

Khiva Khiva ( uz, Xiva/, خىۋا; fa, خیوه, ; alternative or historical names include ''Kheeva'', ''Khorasam'', ''Khoresm'', ''Khwarezm'', ''Khwarizm'', ''Khwarazm'', ''Chorezm'', ar, خوارزم and fa, خوارزم) is a district-level city ...

). There were no copyright issues in this case as both photos were licensed through

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...

. Murray has stated he did not choose the cover and does not like its "masculine" appearance.

Film version

A film version of the book was in development. Paramount bought the rights and developed a script written by

David Hare David Hare may refer to: *David Hare (philanthropist) (1775–1842), Scottish philanthropist *David Hare (artist) (1917–1992), American sculptor and photographer *David Hare (playwright) (born 1947), English playwright and theatre and film direc ...

Michael Winterbottom Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—''Welcome to Sarajevo'', '' Wonderland'' and '' 24 Hour Party People''� ...

was attached to direct and actor

Steve Coogan Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which ...

to play Murray. After disagreements over the script, Paramount passed on the project, their rights meaning no one else could produce Hare's script.

Radio play

Following Paramount's decision to pass on the film script,

convinced them to release the audio rights to the script, and rewrote it as a radio play. The radio play of ''Murder in Samarkand'' was broadcast on 20 February 2010 on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, with

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show '' Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

as Murray. The play was nominated for best drama at the

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

2011.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Murder in Samarkand'', by Craig Murray: Tashkent tales of terror and tippling
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 11 August 2006 War on Terror books Books about Uzbekistan 2006 non-fiction books Political scandals in the United Kingdom Human rights abuses in Uzbekistan Foreign relations of Uzbekistan Whistleblowing Non-fiction books about diplomacy