Among the increasingly authoritarian leaders of Central Asia, Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev is perceived as relatively democratic. At least publicly, Akayev has attempted to accommodate Western demands for improvements in the legal climate for media. Yet Kyrgyzstan’s small but feisty independent press is increasingly muzzled, and journalists say the Akayev administration is to blame. In…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express great concern about the recent harassment of Alexander Kim, chief editor of the independent daily Vecherny Bishkek. On August 24, representatives from the Kyrgyz State Tax Police attempted to arrest Kim on charges of tax evasion and ordered him to provide a number of the newspaper’s financial documents. Kim argued that Vecherny Bishkek had successfully passed a tax audit in December, and that, according to Article 13 of the Kyrgyz Tax Code, no additional review could be performed for another year.
There are two views of the press in Armenia today. The first holds that the press is entirely free to report as it chooses. The second is that the press is irresponsible. One thing is certain: In the absence of censorship, Armenian officials resort to verbal pressure and sometimes physical retribution, to knock journalists into…