The publication Kloop.kg received two letters from the Ministry of Culture and the Industry Regulation and Control Service asking to "immediately" delete the article mentioning the ARIS agency and the head of the press service of President Dayyrbeka Orunbekova. RFE/RL reports on this.
“The Ministry of Culture of Kyrgyzstan and the Service for Regulation and Supervision of Industry sent two letters to the editorial staff of “Kloopa” with a request to remove the article. And ARIS objected to the increase in the cost of social objects, which Orunbekov previously said“. It should be noted that the decision of the Ministry of Culture has neither the date nor the number of issues. The date and the outgoing number appear only in the letter of the Service for Regulation and Control of the Telecommunications Industry under the Ministry of Digital.
In the letters, the complainant claims that this material contains “unreliable (false) information”.
At the end of one of the letters signed by Deputy Minister of Culture Chingiz Esengul uulu, the Ministry of Culture literally writes the following:
“The Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic made a DECISION on the removal of unreliable information from the site kloop.kg, the site owner immediately after having received this DECISION on the following links:
In the event of non-application of this DECISION relating to the removal of unreliable information on the kloop.kg site, the site owner will make a decision on the suspension of work on the kloop.kg site within the time limit, up to two months .
ARIS (Agency for the Development and Investment of Companies) filed a complaint against “Klopp” at the Ministry of Culture – the main figure in the article.
According to this link it is possible to read Gosorganov’s letter”, wrote Klopp.
In case of non-compliance with the requirements, as warned by the Ministry of Culture, the “Kloopa” site will be suspended for up to two months. Editing in response, что не согласна с тракванием, и не неменялят стую.
The Agency for the Development and Investment of Companies (ARIS) filed a complaint against “Kloop” at the Ministry of Culture. As the publication explains, ARIS representatives demanded that journalists change the title Articles under the title “V ARIS protested against the increase in the cost of social objects, which Orunbekov had previously claimed”. The agency considered the title of the article to be incorrect. V Press release ARIS did not mention who originally made such a statement, but journalist “Kloopa” found out that the only official who publicly complained about the rising cost of public facilities was Dayirbek Orunbekov, the head of the Press of the President of Kyrgyzstan. .
“That’s why Orunbekov was also mentioned in the ‘Kloopa’ article with his statement, and that’s exactly what I liked about the ARIS staff. I don’t know why ARIS doesn’t want their application to be compared and compared to the statements of Orunbekova. However, we are convinced that the journalists themselves have the right, on the basis of their research, to interpret the sequence of events and the connection between them,” said Kloope.
The editors added that the specified article will not be deleted.
“When we publish incorrect or unreliable information, we do not remove the material, as it would be unfair to our readers – we simply write an apology at the beginning of this article and inform readers of what exactly was wrong.” However, news about ARIS and Orunbekov does not contain any unreliable information, so it is even added to the top,” the “Kloopa” article reads.
In 2021, Kyrgyzstan passed the Law “On Protection from False (False) News”, which empowers the Ministry of Culture to block news sites based on its decision and without the possibility for news outlets to challenge it. On October 26, 2022, the ministry made a decision to block Site “Azattyka”, the restrictions were extended at the end of December. On January 23, we learned that the Ministry of Culture reversed I filed a request to end the activities of “Azattyka” as a media. The hearing on this application is scheduled for February 9.
On January 31, the international non-governmental organization “Committee to Protect Journalists” (CPJ) and six other international organizations sent a letter to the administration of the President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadira Japarova. The letter writer Express is concerned about the “repression” against journalists and the suppression of press freedom in Kyrgyzstan.