Kyrgyz parliament adopted a resolution June 16 issuing a legally binding instruction to the prosecutor-general’s office, culture ministry and justice ministry to block access to the independent online news agency Ferghana (www.ferghananews.com) because of its coverage of last year’s violence in the south of the country.
“Blocking access to Ferghana would constitute a very shocking attack on one of Kyrgyzstan’s leading independent news media,” Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "Ferghana’s coverage of the June 2010 clashes demonstrated an exemplary professionalism and desire to defuse tension. The order recalls the worst period of censorship in Kyrgyzstan. This press freedom violation is all the more unacceptable as Kyrgyzstan aspires to be a regional model of parliamentary democracy.”
The call for Ferghana’s blocking was contained in a resolution adopted after a special parliamentary commission presented the findings of its investigation into the June 2010 violence in the south. They included a recommendation to block Ferghana.
RSF wrote last week to the president of this parliamentary commission voicing alarm about this recommendation, especially as Ferghana is one of the leading news media of record in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere in Central Asia.
