The authorities are putting pressure on journalists in Kyrgyzstan.
On the evening of January 22, Kyrgyz police raided the office of investigative journalist Bolot Temirov, who regularly reports on his YouTube program Temirov LIVE about corruption, often involving powerful figures in the country.
The raid came two days after Temirov reported allegations that relatives of the head of the State Committee for National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev, were involved in a scheme to redirect petroleum products, skimming off the profits from the deal.
Police claimed to have found drugs on Temirov, which he said were planted on him during the raid. A subsequent blood test on Temirov showed no traces of illegal substances.
The raid was preceded by a plot to lure a female employee of Temirov's program into an intimate relationship that was filmed, then the video was used to try to blackmail the young woman into informing the UKMK about Temirov's work.
On this week's Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion on the campaign against Temirov LIVE, and also the problems of Kaktus.media, an independent Kyrgyz news outlet facing charges of spreading propaganda for reposting an article by an independent Tajik news outlet during recent clashes along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
This week's guests are: from Sarajevo, Ilya Lozovsky, staff writer and editor at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which worked with RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Azattyk, and local Kyrgyz news website Kloop.kg to produce detailed reports about the raid on Temirov LIVE; from Bishkek, Begaim Usenova, media expert and consultant, and formerly the director of the Bishkek-based Media Policy Institute; and Central Asia analyst Bruce Pannier.
Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.
