The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on the authorities of Kyrgyzstan to stop pressure on the independent Kyrgyz-language PolitKlinika media outlet. The statement was published on the website of the international organization.
It says that Kyrgyz authorities should let the independent news website work free from fear of legal harassment.
On May 6, the Editor-in-Chief of PolitKlinika online media outlet, Dilbar Alimova, was summoned for interrogation by the State Committee for National Security. The reason was a publication about a letter allegedly written by Nurlanbek Shakiev (the speaker of the Parliament), in which he asks to rehabilitate the fugitive president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The press service of the Parliament stated that the number of the letter and the signature of the speaker were fake.
PolitKlinika temporarily removed the news about the letter from the website.