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DonateRelying heavily on vague antistate charges, authorities jail 145 journalists worldwide. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan are also among the worst jailers of the press. A CPJ special report
Committee to Protect Journalists
Kyrgyzstan
2010
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CPJ has documented for several years the use of spurious anti-piracy raids to shut down and intimidate media organizations in Russia and the former Soviet republics. Offices have been shut down, and computers seized. Often, security agents make bogus claims to be representing or acting on behalf of the U.S. software company Microsoft.
New York, November 12, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Kyrgyz journalist Azimjon Askarov has been beaten repeatedly in custody.
Mikhail
Beketov is lucky to be alive, although I'm sure there are days when he
doesn't think so. On November 13, 2008, the environmental reporter who
campaigned against a highway that would have destroyed a forest in Khimki, a
town outside
On September 11, The
New York Times reported on the
use of aggressive anti-piracy raids by Russian authorities to intimidate
advocacy groups and independent media outlets. The article noted that these raids are usually prompted by false reports of pirated Microsoft software, sometimes from individuals claiming to represent Microsoft. This is a trend that CPJ has documented for some time. We've recorded incidents of independent outlets like Novaya Gazeta, Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, Minuty Veka, and Kyrgyzstan's STAN TV having offices shut down and computers seized on the orders of lawyers claiming to be acting for Microsoft, even when the companies' software licenses are in order and shown to the investigators.
New York, September 15, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by the conviction and life sentence handed to human rights reporter Azimjon Askarov by a court in Jalal-Abad region, southern Kyrgyzstan, today.
New York, August 12, 2010--Trumped-up charges of extremism against Ulugbek Abdusalomov, the editor of an independent newspaper, and Azimjon Askarov, a journalist and human rights defender, should be dropped immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
New York, July 13, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Friday raid on the newsroom of the independent Uzbek-language broadcaster Osh TV in the southern Kyrgyz city of
New York, June 23, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Kyrgyz authorities to immediately release independent journalists Ulugbek Abdusalomov and Azimjon Askarov, and to ensure the safety of other journalists working in southern Kyrgyzstan, which has been engulfed by interethnic violence since early June.
New York, June 14, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by reports that local television stations in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh were ordered to cease transmission on Friday by the city government in the wake of interethnic violence in the region.
When the independent television outlet Stan TV was raided by Kyrgyz financial police on April 1, authorities claimed they were investigating the use of unlicensed software. The timing of the raid implied a different motivation. As CPJ reported at the time, the day before, the Kyrgyz courts had shut down the pro-opposition newspaper Forum. In the previous month, two other newspapers, Achyk Sayasat (Open Politics) and Nazar (Viewpoint), were suspended for allegedly insulting the now-ousted president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The regional news Web sites Ferghana and Centrasia were blocked as well. Stan TV was in the midst of covering the growing opposition in the country, and the raid effectively silenced the station.
History seemed to repeat itself this week in the mountainous Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan. For the second time in five years, angry protesters—ignored and suppressed by a corrupt government—ousted yet another president.
New York, April 2, 2010—Authorities in Kyrgyzstan should halt their ongoing crackdown on independent and opposition news outlets, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A Bishkek court suspended a pro-opposition newspaper on Wednesday—the third such suspension this month—while financial police confiscated newsroom computers belonging to an independent Web-based television channel on Thursday, effectively taking it off the air.
New York, March 16, 2010—The
Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by reports that the Kyrgyz government
has pressured several radio and television stations to stop carrying programming
from the Kyrgyz service of the
• Saipov murder case unsolved and beset by questions.
• Four journalists badly beaten; no arrests made.
76: Percentage of vote won by Kurmanbek Bakiyev in flawed presidential election.
The press climate deteriorated in this mountainous central Asian nation that once offered promise for democracy and free expression. The government’s erratic investigation into the unsolved 2007 murder of editor Alisher Saipov stained the nation’s law enforcement and press freedom record. At least four critical reporters were brutally attacked, and one fled the country in the face of continuing threats. An independent Russian-language newspaper closed after its staffers received anonymous threats.
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