US State Department: Closure of Azattyk Media further restricts media freedom

The US State Department is concerned about the court's decision to terminate the activities of Azattyk Media as a mass media. This was announced on Twitter by his representative Matthew Miller.

"The United States is concerned about reports of the Kyrgyz court's decision to close the local edition of Azattyk Media, which further restricts media freedom. We call for a fair and thorough judicial review of any appeal," the statement reads.

Earlier, the judge of the Leninsky District Court Cholpon Karimbayeva satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy on the closure of Azattyk Media.

At the end of October 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy announced that it had suspended the work of the Radio Azattyk website for two months. The ministry noted that on September 16, the resource "Present Time" (a subordinate structure of "Azattyk Media") published a video entitled "Heavy fighting on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan", in which "elements of the language of enmity, unconfirmed information about the alleged attack of the Kyrgyz side on Tajikistan, information aggravating the situation in society and causing hatred are used discrimination and division among citizens when covering events in the Batken region".

The Kyrgyz media community expressed concern about the authorities' continued harassment of independent journalists and attempts to restrict media freedom, saying that the ministry should withdraw the lawsuit.

According to human rights activists, the Kyrgyz authorities have recently intensified efforts to control and censor the media against the background of the ongoing suppression of freedom of speech and civil society.