Turkmen authorities convicted Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev of encouraging a family member to attempt suicide at a court hearing on Wednesday.
But his employers, the US-government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), said the authorities had fabricated the charges to punish him for covering a series of blasts at a town outside Ashgabat in July which the government had tried to cover up.
“This was a bogus trial and a predatory sentence that shows that Turkmenistan authorities respect no law and no standards when it comes to their treatment of the media,” said RFE/RL president Steven Korn.