A court in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country allied with Russia, on Thursday (April 27th) ordered the closure of the main non-state Kyrgyz media outlet, the local branch of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). United.
“The court granted the request of the Ministry of Culture to terminate the activities of the media Azattyk”, name of the local subsidiary, and “the media has been closed”, announced in a press release a court in the capital, Bishkek . Azattyk, who has thirty days to appeal, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he intended to challenge the decision.
This comes two days after Russia offered to “share with Kyrgyzstan its experience in the fight against foreign interference”, at a time when a draft law on the media could, according to part of the company. Kyrgyz civil society, restrict freedom of expression.
Among the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where freedom of expression remains restricted, Kyrgyzstan has long appeared as an exception, with relative media and political pluralism. But NGOs denounce the growing pressure against the media.
At the end of January, the Ministry of Culture filed a lawsuit to shut down Azattyk, which has nearly two million subscribers to its YouTube channel in a country of about seven million people. The authorities criticized Azattyk, which notably covers the opposition and investigates corruption, for not having withdrawn a report, despite their requests. The report in question was filmed after the clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan left around 100 dead in a matter of days in mid-September 2022.
The court decision of April 27 is also issued after the visit to Moscow of Nourlanbek Chakiev, president of the Kyrgyz Parliament, who met his Russian counterpart, Vyacheslav Volodin, head of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament. The latter had declared that Russia was ready to “share its experience” after having “adopted effective laws against foreign interference”, in particular reference to that against “foreign agents”.
