The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned a Kyrgyzstan court’s sentencing of two journalists on Wednesday.
The journalists, Joomart Duulatov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov, worked as cameramen for the well-known anti-corruption investigative agency Kloop. They were detained on May 28, charged with inciting riots, and each faces five years’ imprisonment.
Two unnamed accountants were also charged and sentenced to three years’ probation.
The defendant journalists alleged that Kloop and the accused had no involvement with the videos in question; rather, a separate YouTube-based investigative organization, Temirov Live, produced and distributed the videos.
Temirov Live founder Bolot Temirov maintains that all content is his organization’s work. Evidence for charges comprised of a text from a Temirov Live video, which said, “Freedom is not granted, freedom is sought.”
Kloop’s website has been blocked in Kyrgyzstan since 2023.
In 2024, the Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court ordered the shutdown of the organization. Since then, most Kloop journalists have been forced to work in exile.
In January 2024, 11 journalists who worked for Temirov Live were arrested on identical inciting riots charges. Bolot Temirov has been in exile since 2022, and in 2024, his wife, Makhabat Tajibek Kyzy, along with presenter Azamat Ishenbekov, was sentenced to five to six years imprisonment.
Although freedom of the press and freedom of speech is guaranteed in article 32(2) of Kyrgyzstan’s Constitution, all traditional media is state-owned and the few remaining independent news outlets have seen a notable rise in government persecution since 2022.
This includes arbitrary arrests and intimidation, as well as state-backed smear campaigns.
CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said, commented:
Kyrgyzstan has shifted from being a haven for the free press to a country that regularly jails journalists in retaliation for their work. Kyrgyz authorities must release Aleksandrov and Duulatov, along with Makhabat Tajibek Kyzy, the imprisoned director of Temirov Live.
(Jurist)
