New York, July 19, 2001–A CPJ representative testified before a joint congressional subcommittee yesterday about the terrible state of press freedom in Central Asia. [Read the transcript] “Repression and violence, or the threat thereof, are ever present for many reporters, encouraging self-censorship as a survival mechanism,” CPJ Washington representative Frank Smyth told the joint hearing…
New York, April 13, 2001 — The Kyrgyz Parliament is currently considering the repeal of the republic’s notorious criminal libel statutes. A parliamentary committee recently circulated draft legislation to exclude articles 127 and 128 (for libel and insult respectively) from the Criminal Code. On April 4, committee chairman Azimbek Beknazarov told local reporters that the…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by your government’s recent crackdown on independent and opposition media in Kyrgyzstan, exemplified by the recent closure of the opposition twice-weekly newspaper Asaba and the suspension of the independent weekly Res Publica.
POLITICAL REFORMS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH, along with the advent of democratic governments in Croatia and Serbia, brightened the security prospects for journalists in Central Europe and the Balkans. In contrast, Russian’s new government imposed press restrictions, and authoritarian regimes entrenched themselves in other countries of the former Soviet Union, particularly in Central Asia, further threatening…
WHILE THE PRESS IN KYRGYZSTAN HAS ENJOYED A REPUTATION for greater freedom than in any other Central Asian republic, that freedom has in fact been eroding since the mid-1990s. In 2000, pressure on the independent media greatly intensified in advance of parliamentary and presidential elections. Many observers believe President Askar Akayev is resorting to more…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the harsh treatment to which three journalists from the Bishkek independent weekly Delo N were recently subjected by agents of the Ministry of National Security. After a long and brutal interrogation on August 16, one of the journalists was hospitalized with a heart condition, according to CPJ sources.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly disturbed by the fact that an independent journalist in your country has been jailed for insulting a judge. On June 19, a Jalal-Abad city court sentenced Moldosali Ibraimov, a reporter with the independent regional weekly Akyikat, to two years imprisonment for criminal defamation. He was also fined 100,000 soms (US$1,230); a similar fine was imposed on Akyikat, according to local news reports and CPJ sources in Bishkek. He is currently in jail pending an appeal.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in KYRGYZSTAN. New York, April 4, 2000 — A Bishkek city court recently found the local independent weekly Res Publika liable in yet another defamation suit. The paper is currently banned from publishing until it pays a fine resulting from an earlier lawsuit.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the recent arrest of veteran journalist Aziza Abdrasulova and the continued legal harassment of her newspaper, the Bishkek weekly Res Publika. We believe the arrest is part of an intimidation campaign being mounted by your government against independent media during the run-up to parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan.
By Chrystyna Lapychak Wars in Yugoslavia and Chechnya dominated regional and international headlines in 1999. The conflicts raised the journalists’ death toll in the region and prompted crackdowns, as governments blocked access to war zones and engaged in propaganda campaigns.