Representatives of the journalistic community have appealed to the authorities. They note a disturbing trend of backsliding from the principles and values of a democratic society when a mass attack on the media and freedom of speech is launched through a series of laws, multimillion lawsuits, verbal threats from high-ranking officials, illegal detentions and summons for interrogations.
The appeal points out that journalistic investigations are aimed at combating corruption in government structures, formation of stable family and clan schemes that affect the budget of the country, economy and finally the life and well-being of each Kyrgyzstani. Journalists’ materials reveal the hidden so that society can know and understand what is really happening, and law enforcement agencies can fulfill their functions of responding to violations.
But we see that the reaction is the opposite — the authors of the investigations become the objects of criminal cases with egregious violations of legal procedures; there is mass harassment of them on social media by «troll factories», and they are subjected to surveillance and video surveillance of their personal lives. We would like to ask the authorities — who is a criminal and violator for you? Who is violating or who is telling the truth?
From the appeal by the journalistic community
The media representatives remind that a journalist is always defending the public and people’s interests. Kyrgyz people are concerned about problems of unemployment, corruption, health care, economy, low income of citizens, quality of education, social services and benefits, lack of water, and housing conditions. All these questions are for the government, how it fulfills its obligations to the population. These are the topics journalists write about, and journalists become targets for harassment because of their coverage of these issues.
We call on the authorities and supporters of certain officials to stop the mass attacks on the media and journalists on social media, not to divert the public attention from the problems that journalists reveal, and to stop surveillance and spread of personal life videos to smear journalists and change the subject of discussion.
The appeal states that it is well known who is behind the attacks on journalists, owns and operates «trolls» on social media. «You can lie once, twice. But you can’t lie all the time. We have a small country where everything is visible at a glance. Our people know who is worth what and why some officials live like oligarchs. Society cannot be fooled and journalists cannot be intimidated. We, journalists, will continue to cover everything from the illegal actions of officials to the problems of ordinary citizens. We will continue to report because we are the last hope for people desperate from widespread lawlessness. We will continue to voice the problems and difficulties of Kyrgyzstan’s people. Only then the authorities will begin to notice people and remember their obligations to them, only then people will know the truth,» they stressed.
Police officers accompanied by special forces soldiers came to Temirov Live office in Bishkek on January 22. They detained Bolot Temirov and took him to the capital’s Department of Internal Affairs.
It became known later that the colleague of Bolot Temirov, Bolot Nazarov, was also detained. The court released both detainees under the written pledge not to leave country.
Journalists associate the visit of police officers with the professional activities of the Temirov Live team and the latest investigation into the fuel business of the family of the head of the State Committee for National Security Kamchybek Tashiev.
