In Kyrgyzstan, press freedom deteriorates with the sentencing of four journalists to prison

A banner displaying the portrait of journalist Bolot Temirov during a rally calling for his release, in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), January 23, 2022. VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO / AFP Arrested in January, eleven Kyrgyz journalists received their verdict, Thursday October 10, at the Bishkek court. While seven of them were acquitted, two were sentenced to six and five years in prison, and two others to three years of probation for “calling for mass riots”. “I didn’t expect the sentences to be so severe,” said Ulan Seiitbekov, the lawyer for four of the journalists, who will appeal. This verdict marks a new attack on press freedom in this Central Asian country of 7 million inhabitants, which over the last two decades appeared to be the least authoritarian in the region. Read also | In Kyrgyzstan, the arrest of eleven journalists illustrates the authoritarian turn of the regime Add to your selections The ten journalists accused worked for a media outlet that has long been in the sights of the authorities: Temirov Live, an investigative YouTube channel specializing in links of corruption within the Kyrgyz elite, and its partner channel Aït Aït Desse (“Say it, say it”, in Kyrgyz). Its founder, Bolot Temirov, was expelled from Kyrgyzstan in 2022, after months of judicial harassment for his investigations uncovering corruption between those close to President Sadyr Japarov and the powerful head of the country’s secret service, Kamtchybek Tashiev. Director of the channel and wife of Bolot Temirov, Makhabat Tajibek Kyzy received the heaviest sentence – six years in prison – among the four journalists found guilty. At his side, Azamat Ishenbekov, sentenced to five years in detention, is an “akyn” [conteur kirghiz traditionnel]which appears in one of the videos judged, according to the Court’s experts, as inciting civil disobedience. “They definitely want to silence us,” says Bolot Temirov, on the phone from an undisclosed location in Europe, assuring that he will continue his corruption investigations at the top of the Kyrgyz state. “Real pressure” President Sadyr Japarov, in power since 2020, denies any attack on the right to inform. “Freedom of expression exists in Kyrgyzstan. It has always existed and will exist forever,” he said in an interview with state news agency Khabar on September 28. “As for the eleven journalists, only two of them are really journalists,” said the head of state. A few weeks earlier, Mr. Japarov had also criticized journalists from the investigative media Kloop for their “one-sided investigations” with “bias, slander, hostility and self-interest” – without further clarification. This progressive media, founded in 2007 and renowned in Central Asia, was forced to liquidate part of its funds after a court decision in February. And as for the editorial staff of Temirov Live, Kloop’s legal troubles coincide with the publication of an investigation embarrassing for those close to the president and Kamtchybek Tashiev, concerning the financing of a football academy in the south of the country. You have 40.15% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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