Boybo’ta Do’stqorayev

Boybo’ta Do’stqorayev was born on 12 November 1942 in the village of Oqto’nli in the Chiroqchi district of the Qashqadaryo region. A candidate of philological sciences, associate professor (dotsent), journalist and essayist, he devoted most of his life to training journalists.

From 1969 he worked at the journalism faculty of Tashkent State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan) and taught there for nearly half a century. He began with literary criticism; after defending his candidate’s dissertation in 1986 he turned to the history of the Uzbek press.

His articles deal with the journalism of the Jadid enlighteners, among them Mahmudkhoja Behbudi, Munavvar Qori, Abdulla Avloni, Cho’lpon, Fitrat, Hoji Muin, Ubaydulla Asadullakhojaev and Saidriza Alizoda. He also wrote on Cho’lpon’s work and on the text of the epic “Alpomish”. He prepared a number of texts by Fitrat, Cho’lpon, Abdulla Qodiriy and others for publication in newspapers, magazines and books, including Cho’lpon’s collection of poems “Go’zal Turkiston” (1997).

At the Uzbek State University of World Languages he headed the department of theory, practice and history of world journalism and worked as a professor at the faculty of international journalism. He is the author of the textbook “History of Uzbek Journalism” and was a member of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan.

He won the national “Oltin qalam” (Golden Pen) prize, and in 2002 a presidential decree gave him the title Honoured Youth Mentor of Uzbekistan. Do’stqorayev died on 28 July 2021 at the age of 78; the Creative Union of Journalists of Uzbekistan announced his death.