Kyrgyzstan / Europe & Central Asia

  
Kyrgyz and US officials

Kyrgyzstan parliament approves ‘foreign agents’ law

Stockholm, March 15, 2024—Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov should reject Russian-inspired legislation that would designate externally funded media rights groups and nonprofits that run news outlets as “foreign representatives,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On Thursday, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved in a third and final reading, without debate, a bill requiring nonprofits that receive foreign…

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CPJ welcomes Kyrgyzstan’s withdrawal of restrictive media bill

Stockholm, March 13, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Wednesday’s decision by Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov to withdraw from parliament a draft law that could have been weaponized against the independent press. “Alongside Kyrgyzstan’s ongoing media crackdown, jailing of journalists, and Russian-inspired ‘foreign agents’ bill, the vague and repressive mass media bill could have been…

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In several hearings between February 1 and February 6, 2024, the Bishkek City Court rejected the appeals of 11 journalists, who are current and former employees of the anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live, and upheld their pretrial detention. (Screenshot: YouTube/Radio Azattyk)

Kyrgyzstan court extends pre-trial detention of 8 anti-corruption journalists

Stockholm, March 13, 2024—Kyrgyzstan authorities should immediately drop charges against current and former Temirov Live staff, release all eight detained journalists, and reverse its crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Pervomaisky District Court in the capital, Bishkek, extended by two months the pre-trial detention of Temirov…

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CPJ condemns Kyrgyzstan’s order to shut investigative outlet Kloop

Stockholm, February 12, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled by a Kyrgyzstan court decision on Friday to shutter Kloop Media, a nonprofit that runs the country’s leading investigative news website Kloop. “After last month’s mass arrest of journalists linked to anti-corruption outlet Temirov Live, the forced closure of Kloop—one of the most respected media…

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In several hearings between February 1 and February 6, 2024, the Bishkek City Court rejected the appeals of 11 journalists, who are current and former employees of the anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live, and upheld their pretrial detention. (Screenshot: YouTube/Radio Azattyk)

Kyrgyzstan upholds detention of 11 journalists; CPJ calls for release

Stockholm, February 6, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday condemned a Kyrgyzstan court’s decision to uphold the two-month pretrial detention of 11 journalists, who are current and former employees of the anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live. “By confirming the arrests of 11 journalists—an unprecedented assault on press freedom in modern Kyrgyz history—authorities in Kyrgyzstan…

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Makhabat Tajibek kyzy and 24.kg office

Kyrgyzstan authorities raid news outlets 24.kg and Temirov Live, arrest journalists

Stockholm, January 16, 2024 — Kyrgyz authorities should drop criminal investigations into privately owned news website 24.kg and investigative outlet Temirov Live, release all detained current and former members of Temirov Live, and end their crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Monday, officers from Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for…

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CPJ and partners send letter to UN rapporteurs over Kyrgyzstan deportation of investigative reporter Bolot Temirov

The Committee to Protect Journalists, together with the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and civil society organization Precedent Group, on December 14 submitted a letter to three United Nations special rapporteurs regarding the wrongful conviction and arbitrary deportation of Kyrgyz investigative journalist Bolot Temirov from his home country. In…

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People take part in a rally calling for media freedom and the release of journalist Bolot Temirov, who was detained the night before, in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, on January 23, 2022.

CPJ calls on Kyrgyzstan parliament to reject Russian-style ‘foreign agents’ bill

Stockholm, October 25, 2023—Kyrgyzstan’s parliament should reject Russian-inspired legislation that would classify externally-funded media rights groups and nonprofits that run news outlets as “foreign representatives” and could force many nonprofits to close, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On Wednesday, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passed in a first reading a bill requiring nonprofits that receive foreign…

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Kyrgyz authorities threaten to block website of investigative outlet Kloop

Stockholm, September 8, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Kyrgyzstan authorities to abandon its latest threat to suspend independent investigative outlet Kloop if it does not remove a September 1 article containing allegedly false information. “Following their recent application to shutter the outlet and now their threat to block its website, Kyrgyz authorities’…

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Cyberattackers used US company RayoByte in efforts to crash media sites

The cyberattack against the Somali Journalists Syndicate could not have come at a worse time. A distributed denial-of-service attack, known by its acronym DDoS, flooded the local press freedom group’s website with traffic in early August and knocked it offline. Days later, authorities arrested SJS staff member and Kaab TV editor Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul…

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