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Kyrgyzstan has suspended a TV station, detained its director and questioned its journalists on accusations of incitement.
The State Committee for Nationwide Safety (SCNS) says it has opened a prison case into NEXT TV over posts on Telegram and Fb by which an interviewee claimed Kyrgyzstan had agreed to supply army help to Russia in Ukraine.
The Kyrgyz Protection Ministry denied the declare. Kyrgyzstan’s Overseas Ministry additionally rejected the declare and stated native media ought to base reporting on official authorities statements solely.
Authorities arrested NEXT TV director Taalai Duishembiev on March 3 and later ordered that he be held in pretrial detention.
Duishembiev was accused of “inciting interregional hostility,” in accordance with his lawyer, Akmat Alagushev.
“The channel’s operations have been suspended, its director, Taalai Duishembiev, has been detained for 2 months, and workers interrogated by the officers,” Alagushev instructed reporters.
The lawyer stated the media outlet had cited on its social media platforms the feedback of a Kazakhstan official. The lawyer additionally stated he did not assume the station ought to have been stopped from broadcasting.
NEXT TV journalist Perizat Saitburkhan, whom authorities questioned, instructed reporters she had been requested concerning the media outlet’s actions, funding and proprietor, Ravshan Jeenbekov.
Jeenbekov is an opposition politician who was twice jailed, together with for alleged involvement in a lethal conflict with safety and supporters of a former president in 2019. Jeenbekov has denied the allegations in that case, which is ongoing.
In a remark posted to social media, Jeenbekov described the motion towards NEXT TV as a crackdown on press freedom.
“The SCNS needs to imprison not solely Taalai, however all journalists, freedom of speech and the opposition,” Jeenbekov wrote on Fb.
He added that he had been below stress for months to shutter NEXT TV.
Critics converse out
Kyrgyzstan’s ombudsman and members of civil society criticized the motion towards the privately owned station.
Ombudsman Atyr Abdrakhmatova known as on the SCNS to respect the constitutionally assured freedom of the media and on the judiciary to evaluate the measures taken towards NEXT TV.
In a joint assertion, Kyrgyzstan’s media and civil society members additionally known as for authorities to respect press freedom.
“We contemplate the motion towards NEXT TV as a continuation of the motion to suppress freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan,” the assertion stated, including that journalists from different shops had beforehand come below stress.
Media knowledgeable Daniyar Sadiyev criticized the choice to droop the station whereas an investigation was in progress and stated the cruel response urged it is perhaps political.
“It doesn’t make sense to imprison or shut down a TV station with out a court docket ruling on this case,” Sadiyev instructed VOA.
Declaring that the case was a few social media submit, Sadiyev stated that measures “mustn’t have been so harsh.”
“Due to this fact, it appears extra of a political resolution. The channel’s workers additionally say they’ve been below a whole lot of stress currently. This, in fact, will be seen as a stress on freedom of the press,” Sadiyev stated.
Presidential spokesperson Erbol Sultanbayev instructed the state-run Kabar Information Company that Kyrgyzstan “has and can proceed to have freedom of speech.”
“Nobody has restricted freedom of speech. On the identical time, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the dissemination of false info below the guise of freedom of speech on personal tv and different media shouldn’t be allowed,” Sultanbayev stated.
Native journalists have reported being extra weak to threats, harassment and assaults for his or her work lately, together with by authorities officers and legislation enforcement.
This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service.
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