Kyrgyzstan

New York, December 29, 2009—Police in Kazakhstan said Monday that they have identified several suspects in this month’s murder of prominent Kyrgyz editor Gennady Pavlyuk. Police did not identify the suspects or describe their alleged roles, other than to say the suspects are citizens of neighboring Kyrgyzstan. In a statement today, the Kyrgyz Prosecutor General’s office said it had not yet received information from its Kazakh counterparts and had no other comment. 

New York, December 22, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Kazakh authorities today to thoroughly investigate the apparent murder of visiting Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk. Pavlyuk, at left, who is better known by his pen name, Ibragim Rustambek, died in the hospital this morning after falling from an upper-story window of an apartment building in Kazakhstan’s economic capital, Almaty, last week.

New York, December 16, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an end to the unrelenting wave of unsolved attacks on journalists in Kyrgyzstan.

New York, December 9, 2009—Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ruled today that the prosecution of a man accused in the 2007 murder of Alisher Saipov, editor of the Uzbek-language weekly Siyosat, can proceed, the independent news Web site Ferghana reported. Saipov’s family and colleagues have called the case bogus.

New York, November 3, 2009—Police in Kyrgyzstan should investigate work-related motives in a weekend assault that left Kubanychbek Zholdoshev, a reporter with the government weekly Osh Shamy, with a concussion and broken ribs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, October 22, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kyrgyz authorities to make public the findings of their investigation into the murder of Alisher Saipov, left, the editor of the Uzbek-language newspaper Siyosat, who was shot in Osh two years ago. Continued impunity in the killing, which occurred in early evening in the city’s downtown district, has fostered fear among his colleagues and undermined trust in the government’s ability to enforce the law.

New York, June 10, 2009--Following an attack on Friday on the deputy editor of the pro-opposition Kyrgyz-language biweekly Achyk Sayasat (Open Politics), the Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Kyrgyz authorities to ensure that their investigation is prompt and thorough. 

New York, May 13, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kyrgyz authorities to detain, charge, and prosecute three men who attacked Yrysbek Omurzakov, editor of the independent newspaper Tribuna, in the capital, Bishkek, last week.

New York, March 3, 2009--An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, today, according to the regional news site Ferghana.

Three years after a popular uprising inspired hope for reform, press conditions stagnated and, in many respects, deteriorated. A high-profile murder remained unsolved, with no evident progress in the investigation. Two editors faced criminal prosecution, and their newspapers were shuttered in the wake of a defamation case. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed into law a restrictive broadcast measure that reversed efforts to transform the state broadcaster Kyrgyz National Television and Radio Corporation (KTR) into an independent, publicly funded outlet. Conditions reverted in many ways to those that existed under former leader Askar Akayev, whose corrupt regime was brought down by the 2005 revolt known as the Tulip Revolution.