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Reporters Without Borders Welcomes Kyrgyz Decision To Stop Blocking Of Kloop Website
March 19, 2024
By RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has welcomed a decision by a court in Bishkek to cancel a move by Kyrgyzstan's Culture Ministry to block the Russian-language website of the independent media outlet Kloop.
In its March 19 statement, RSF also urged Bishkek city prosecutor Emilbek Abdymanapov to drop liquidation proceedings against Kloop.
Kloop's website in Russian will resume its operations if the Bishkek Administrative Court's decision is not appealed or if a possible appeal is rejected by the Bishkek City Court.
The website was blocked in September 2023, and in November, Kloop's Kyrgyz-language website was also blocked amid a government campaign to pressure the Kloop Media Public Foundation.
The Culture Ministry said it blocked the sites after the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) claimed the media outlet distributed false information.
The claim referred to a report that appeared on Kloop's website in September about jailed opposition politician Ravshan Jeenbekov and a statement he made about being tortured while in custody.
The ministry demanded Kloop remove an article about the alleged torture of Jeenbekov from its site in Russian or face being blocked.
On September 12, Kloop published a statement saying it refused to remove the material as the story in question attributed all information about the situation faced by Jeenbekov while in custody to actual individuals and sources.
Kloop said at the time it was officially informed of the lawsuit against it and that the move was taken after an audit by the UKMK determined its "published materials are aimed at sharply criticizing the policies of the current government" and that "most of the publications are purely negative, aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal bodies."
Established in June 2007, Kloop is a Kyrgyz news website whose main contributors are students and graduates of the Kloop Media Public Foundation School of Journalism.
As an independent media entity, it is known for publishing reports on corruption within various governmental bodies and providing training to Central Asian journalists in fact-checking and investigative techniques. Copyright © Mar 2024 Voice of America. All Rights Reserved.
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