Kyrgyzstan

There has been an increase in attempts to intimidate Kyrgyzstan’s independent media after Kubanychbek Joldoshev, a newspaper reporter based in the southern city of Osh, became the seventh journalist to be physically attacked since the start of the year. He was badly beaten after his taxi was stopped by police on November 2, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. A reporter for the municipal...

Police in Kyrgyzstan should investigate work-related motives in a weekend assault that left Kubanychbek Zholdoshev, a reporter with the government weekly Osh Shamy, with a concussion and broken ribs, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Tuesday. Three assailants beat Zholdoshev as he was returning home from dinner in the southern city of Osh on Sunday night, the...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Kyrgyz authorities to make public the findings of their investigation into the murder of Alisher Saipov, the editor of the Uzbek-language newspaper Siyosat, who was shot in Osh two years ago. Continued impunity in the killing, which occurred in early evening in the city’s downtown district, has fostered fear among his colleagues and...

A policeman has confessed to beating a Kyrgyz journalist in the southern Osh region who later died from his injuries, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service has reported quoting the country's Deputy Interior Minister Sabyrbek Kurmanaliev. Almaz Tashiyev, 32, was buried on July 13 in the Nookat district. He died the previous day from massive internal injuries suffered during a beating in Nookat on July 4. Details...

Kyrgyz freelance journalist Almazbek Tashiyev’s died in a hospital in the southern city of Osh on July 12 from the injuries he received when he was allegedly beaten up eight days earlier in the nearby town of Nookat by a police officer for unclear reasons. The authorities are investigating. Tashiyev, who was still conscious when admitted to hospital, said he was beaten up by about 10 policemen in...

Kyrgyz authorities have been urged to detain, charge, and prosecute three men who attacked Yrysbek Omurzakov, editor of the independent newspaper Tribuna, in the capital, Bishkek, last week. On May 7, at around 5 p.m., two sedans blocked Omurzakov's marked press vehicle at an intersection near his office, the editor told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Omurzakov said he...

An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, Tuesday, according to the regional news site Ferghana. Syrgak Abdyldayev, a political reporter and commentator with the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, was attacked at around 7 p.m., Ferghana reported. Abdyldayev, 47, is currently hospitalised with 12 stab wounds and a broken arm, Reporter...

An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, on March 3, according to the regional news site Ferghana. Syrgak Abdyldayev, a political reporter and commentator with the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, was attacked at around 7 p.m., Ferghana reported. Abdyldayev, 47, is currently hospitalised with 12 stab wounds and a broken arm, Reporter...

Cholpon Orozobekova, editor-in-chief of leading Kyrgyzstan newspaper De Facto, is seeking political asylum in a European country. She was forced to emigrate with her husband—also a well-known journalist in Kyrgyzstan—and their two small children because of several criminal charges against her, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has reported. Orozobekova, 33, worked as a freelancer for RFE...

The Kyrgyzstan government has refused to resume local retransmission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service unless it submits programmes for prior approval. The demand was made on December 15 by Melis Eshimkanov, head of state-owned broadcaster UTRK, who told a RFE/RL delegation its programmes were “too negative and critical.” “This political decision is intolerable,” Paris-based...