In Kyrgyzstan, the legal entity of the independent publication Kloop was liquidated

The court in Bishkek made a decision to liquidate the Kloop Media fund — a legal entity of the independent Kyrgyz publication Kloop. The prosecutor’s lawsuit filed in the summer of last year became the reason for the persecuted fund. In it, Bishkek prosecutor Emilbek Abdimannapov claimed that most of Kloop’s publications “have a negative character aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal bodies.”

The fund stated that they will appeal this decision in a higher court.

The Kloop website was blocked in Kyrgyzstan in September 2023. The blocking of the site was demanded by the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy of the country. The reason was Kloop’s publications about the torture of opposition political activists in pre-trial detention centers.

In Kyrgyzstan, there is a law “On unreliable (false) information”, known to the public as “the law on fakes”. It makes it possible to recognize false information that does not agree with the official opinion of state bodies, and subject individuals and mass media that disseminate it to court.

• The Kloop publication was founded in 2007. This is an independent resource that investigates, among other things, facts of corruption in the state bodies of Kyrgyzstan.
• In 2023, Kyrgyzstan immediately lost 50 positions in the World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 72 to 122. Human rights activists note numerous cases of pressure by the authorities on the mass media in the country: expulsion of journalists, blocking of websites of independent publications, including the Kyrgyz service of Radio Liberty, and regular calls of journalists and bloggers for questioning.