Watchdog

BISHKEK -- More than 25 media organizations and journalists in Kyrgyzstan have urged the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Youth Policies to withdraw a court request to halt the media operations of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, warning of its effect on the free press.

The letter, made public on January 24, says the move is illegal as Radio Azattyk, officially registered as Azattyk Media, had not violated any laws or regulations in the Central Asian nation.

Kyrgyz authorities blocked Radio Azattyk’s websites in Kyrgyz and Russian in late October after the media outlet refused to take down a video that was produced by Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America. Officials of the Central Asian nation have claimed that the authors of the video "predominantly" took the position of the Tajik side.

"[The ministry's motion] does not cite any fact or information proving that Azattyk Media systemically violated the country's laws. The closure of Azattyk Media would not only be a blow to freedom of speech and the independent media, it will certainly lead to a limiting of the right of citizens to receive information," the letter said.

Among organizations that signed the letter are Kyrgyzstan's Media Policy Institute Foundation, the Independent Union of Journalists, the Journalist Social Union, the Journalistic Investigations Foundation, the Media Consult Foundation, and others.

The Ministry of Culture, Information, and Youth Policies informed RFE/RL on January 23 that it had asked the Lenin district court in Bishkek to halt RFE/RL's media operations in the country. The court said later in the day that it will address the request on February 8.

The authorities' decision to block Radio Azattyk’s websites was based on the Law on Protection from False Information, legislation that drew widespread criticism when it was adopted in August 2021.

Radio Azattyk's bank account in Bishkek was frozen at the time, and in November Kyrgyz authorities suspended the accreditations of 11 RFE/RL correspondents at the country's parliament.

In response to notification about the move, RFE/RL President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Fly said the broadcaster rejects "these continued unlawful attacks against Radio Azattyk and our independent reporting.”

“We will pursue all available legal means to preserve our operations in the country. We will continue to serve our loyal Kyrgyz audiences no matter what actions the Kyrgyz government takes,” Fly said in a statement published on January 23.

RFE/RL has appealed the move to block the sites with Bishkek's Birinchi Mai district court. The first hearing into the appeal is scheduled for January 26.

Russian authorities have detained six Crimean Tatars after their homes were searched in Ukraine's Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula.

The Crimean Solidarity human rights group said on January 24 that the searches were conducted at the homes of Ekrem Krosh, Ayder Asanov, Refat Seydametov, Osman Abdurazzakov, Leman Zekiryayev, and Khalil Mambetov in the Dzhankoy district.

The men were later taken away by officers of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

Ekrem Krosh's wife, Amide Krosh, told the Crimean Solidarity group that the officers said the searches were part of an unspecified terrorism case.

Occupying Russian authorities have not issued any official statement regarding the searches and detention of the alleged suspects.

Since Moscow seized Crimea in 2014, Russian authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic group that is banned in Russia but not in Ukraine.

Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula was vocally opposed by many Crimean Tatars, who are a sizable minority in the region.

Exiled from their homeland to Central Asia by Soviet authorities under the dictatorship of Josef Stalin during World War II, many Crimean Tatars are very wary of Russia and Moscow's rule.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow's takeover of the peninsula.

Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries. Moscow also backs separatists in a war against Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.