The judicial board of the Bishkek City Court canceled the decision of the Administrative District Court of the capital of March 18, which invalidated the conclusion of the Ministry of Culture on removal of material from Kloop website and blocking of the media outlet’s portal at its meeting today, June 3. The media outlet reported on its Telegram channel.
Kloop lawyer Fatima Yakupbaeva asked what justification the court included in its ruling.
«We consider the decision illegal. A dangerous precedent is being created for online media and everyone who disseminates information, because with this court ruling it turns out that that it is possible not to address the distributor of information itself, but to go straight to the Ministry of Culture and ask for blocking. This is a violation of the balance provided by the Law «On Protection from False Information,» she said.
Kloop will appeal the decision of the City Court in the Supreme Court.
Kloop.kg website was blocked because of the material «Politician Ravshan Dzheenbekov stated that he was tortured in the pretrial detention center 1». The State Committee for National Security complained to the Ministry of Culture about it. The security services believe that the material «does not correspond to reality and defames the reputation of the SCNS». At the same time, the news item about Dzheenbekov contained the position of the Penitentiary Service denying his statement about torture.
The Russian-language version of Kloop website has been blocked since September 12. It was on this that the Administrative Court previously made the decision. The Kyrgyz-language version has been blocked since early November.
