BISHKEK — A day after looking the workplaces of the information web site 24.kg, regulation enforcement officers within the Kyrgyz capital detained for questioning eight present and former members of the Temirov Reside investigative group and the Ait Ait Dese mission, as the federal government continues to strain impartial media.
Temirov Reside’s founder, outstanding investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, mentioned the journalists who had been detained for questioning after their properties and workplaces had been searched on January 16 included his spouse and the director of the Temirov Reside group, Makhabat Tajybek-kyzy.
Temirov mentioned on X, previously Twitter, that the searches and detentions could also be linked to 2 current investigative experiences by Temirov Reside — one a few personal New Yr’s Eve flight by President Sadyr Japarov to Milan, Italy, on a authorities aircraft, the second about corruption amongst high officers of the Inside Ministry, together with minister Ulan Niyazbekov.
The Inside Ministry issued a press release, saying that the searches and detentions for questioning had been linked to a probe launched into unspecified Temirov Reside publications that ”carried parts of requires mass unrest.”
Temirov mentioned that Temirov Reside reporters Sapar Akunbekov, Azamat Ishenbekov, and Aike Beishekeeva, in addition to former journalists of the group Aktilek Kaparov, Tynystan Asypbek, Saipidin Sultanaliev, and Joodar Buzumov, additionally had their properties searched.
Temirov, who was deported to Moscow in November 2022 after a court docket dominated that he illegally obtained Kyrgyz citizenship, which he denies, added that two different workers of the Temirov Reside group, whom he recognized as Maksat and Jumabek, had been detained.
Kyrgyzstan’s civil society and impartial media have historically been essentially the most vibrant in Central Asia, however that has modified amid a deepening authorities crackdown.
Only a day earlier, officers of the State Committee for Nationwide Safety (UKMK) detained for questioning the director-general of the 24.kg information web site, Asel Otorbaeva, and two editors, Makhinur Niyazova and Anton Lymar, in a case of ”propagating struggle” in an unspecified report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The three had been later launched however ordered to not reveal particulars of the case.
Lawmaker Janar Akaev referred to as the strikes in opposition to the journalists ”an assault on freedom of speech.”
”Such varieties of conditions result in self-censorship, and hinder investigative experiences on political and corruption points,” Akaev mentioned, including that the most recent developments round impartial journalists can be raised at parliament’s subsequent session.
One other lawmaker, Nurjigit Kadyrbekov, advised RFE/RL that the continued strain on impartial journalists ”may injury the president’s picture.”
UN Human Rights Workplace spokeswoman Liz Throssell expressed concern over the developments round Kyrgyz journalists up to now two days.
”These newest actions by the authorities look like half of a bigger sample of strain in opposition to civil society activists, journalists and different critics of the authorities,” Throssel mentioned in a press release on January 16, including, ”It’s all the extra regarding that the Kyrgyz Parliament is contemplating a draft regulation on mass media which might prohibit the best to freedom of expression which incorporates media freedom.”
”We name on the authorities to guard freedom of expression and be certain that media laws within the nation is in keeping with worldwide human rights requirements,” Throssel mentioned.