The criminal case against Kaktus.media is not pressure on the media. Prosecutor General of Kyrgyzstan Kurmankul Zulushev said at a press conference.
According to him, an examination has been scheduled, following which a legal assessment will be given to the news item published on the news feed of the news agency.
«A criminal case was initiated by the prosecutor’s office of Pervomaisky district of Bishkek; the investigation is being conducted by the capital’s supervisory authority. The Kaktus.media publication indicated that Kyrgyzstan was the first to open fire during the conflict on the border. You know very well that the border issue is very acute. A journalist, an ordinary citizen or a civil servant must be held accountable under the law. We are not going to put pressure on the media. The prosecutor’s office is doing its job,» Kurmankul Zulushev said.
He added that if the fault of the media outlet is not proved during the investigation, the case will be dropped.
A rally was held near the office of Kaktus.media on January 28. The protesters demanded to shut down the media outlet, because the journalists gave information — a reprint from the Tajik Asia Plus website — about the conflict on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. Later, the Prosecutor General’s Office sent out information that a criminal case had been initiated on the fact of the publication about the armed conflict in the border zone. The media workers were summoned for interrogations by the Bishkek prosecutor’s office.
