The administrative court of Bishkek has completed consideration of the claim of Azattyk Media institution against the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy to cancel the blocking of the website.
The court dismissed the administrative complaint of Azattyk Media, considering it insufficiently substantiated, despite the fact that during the consideration, officials of the Ministry of Culture admitted that they did not have results of an examination proving that hate speech was used in the disputed story. The decision to block the media outlet was made solely on the basis of negative comments on social media.
Lawyer of the media outlet Timur Sultanov noted that he intended to file a complaint with a higher authority, as he did not agree with the court’s decision.
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.
