Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Jamie Fly met with representatives of the Kyrgyz government and civil society, a number of ambassadors in Bishkek and discussed issues concerning Azattyk and the state of freedom of speech in the country. Azattyk reported.
According to the media outlet, Jamie Fly met with the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov to discuss the role of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in providing the Kyrgyzstanis with accurate and unbiased information.
«Kyrgyzstanis are interested in receiving neutral information. We call on the government of the Kyrgyz Republic to stop all attacks on independent media and preserve the freest media environment in the region,» said Jamie Fly.
Earlier, the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy filed a lawsuit with the Leninsky District Court of Bishkek to terminate the activity of Azattyk Media as a media outlet. However, the representatives of the plaintiff did not come to the preliminary hearing scheduled for February 9. The Ministry of Culture sent a motion to postpone the hearings and schedule a linguistic expertise.
On October 27, the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy of Kyrgyzstan announced that it had suspended the operation of Radio Azattyk website for two months. The ministry noted that on September 16, the Current Time resource (subordinate structure of Azattyk Media) published a video entitled «Heavy fighting on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan», in which «elements of hate speech, unconfirmed information about the alleged attack by the Kyrgyz side on Tajikistan were used, as well as information that aggravates the situation in society and causes hatred, discrimination and division among citizens when covering events in Batken region.»
Kyrgyzstan’s media community has expressed its concern over the Kyrgyz government’s continued harassment of independent journalists and attempts to restrict media freedom, saying that the ministry should withdraw the lawsuit.
As the human rights activists note, Kyrgyz authorities have recently increased efforts to control and censor mass media amid a continued crackdown on freedom of expression and civil society.
