How to safeguard the rights of journalists in Kyrgyzstan
How to safeguard the rights of journalists in Kyrgyzstan
Introduction
The question of safety for journalists is becoming more topical in Kyrgyzstan. Media representatives are now often rethinking about whether they should work on special investigations or cover acute political issues. Their concerns are based on the increasing frequency of crimes committed against journalists.
It is critical to familiarize oneself with the statistics of attacks against media representatives for the last five years to understand how dangerous it is nowadays to carry out journalistic activities in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Public Association "Journalists," 8 cases of attacks on journalists and members of their family were registered in 2004. In 2005, it augmented to 14 cases; of which, two cases involved harming journalists of foreign media. In 2006, 12 cases of attack against media representatives were registered. The year of 2007 was the bloodiest, in which there were 19 cases and the murder of Alisher Saipov, the founder of the "Siesat" newspaper. During that same year, 6 cases of threats against journalists were documented.
In 2008, 5 cases of attack on journalists and one threat were recorded. Meanwhile, from the beginning of 2009, 4 cases have already been registered, in two of which journalists were beaten up with particular brutality. They were the correspondent of "Reporter Bishkek," Syrgak Abdyldaev, and the editor-in-chief of "Moscovskii Komsomolets v Kyrgyzskoi Respublike" newspaper, Ulugbek Babakulov. Along with them the editor-in-chief of "Tribuny," Yrysbek Omurzakov and Bahadir Kenjebaev, the chief operator of broadcasting company "Osh TV," were also beaten up.
The analysis of the growing crime rate against journalists clearly shows that the level of threat to their safety increases with the rise of tension in social and political life of the state.
I. Journalists of Kyrgyzstan share how dangerous it is for them to carry out their professional activity.
The media representatives of Kyrgyzstan regularly report that it is getting more dangerous to work as journalist. As a rule, they refer to the fact that every time an editorial board assigns them to carry out a special investigation or when they work on preparing acute political materials, they worry about their own safety. Practically, the fear of journalists to be injured for their work is so great that many of them have refused to work on potentially dangerous topics.
Leila Saralaeva, an independent journalist, has the point of view that "There are fewer independent brave journalists with active civil position in Kyrgyzstan."
"Somebody is disappointed, somebody is threatened... Nowadays an action can be brought or a newspaper can be put out of business with huge fines for carrying out a journalistic activity in our country. But this is not the worst scenario. The most terrible thing that can happen is that journalists can be ruthlessly beaten up, his arms and legs can be broken to force them to never tell the truth," - believes Saralaeva.
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Moskovskii komsomolets v Kyrgyzstane," Ulugbek Babakulov, thinks that it is useless to call journalists to be more cautious and not to write on acute subjects. He explained that the journalist is subordinate, dependent on his employer: "Thus, his material will look the way his editor and founder want it to be. Another question is whether the journalist would sign his name under this material. However the problem is that if he does not agree with terms of the newspaper they will always find a replacement for him."
To a certain degree, as Ulugbek Babakulov said, journalists could increase their own safety if they always prepare objective materials. However, according to him it is meaningless to require this from Kyrgyz media, behind which there are always certain political forces.
"The majority of media in Kyrgyzstan serve certain individuals and oligarchs. Therefore, it is quite natural that they are promoting their own interests and they can not present a wide scope of opinions. For example, it is natural that following a certain line, they cannot publish pro-governmental materials and oppositional in character on the same page," emphasized Ulugbek Babakulov.
It is worth noting that there is widespread opinion among representatives of the private media of Kyrgyzstan that they are more prone to risk while carrying out their professional duties than journalists of the state media. However, there are opposite opinions. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Chuiskie Izvestiya," Antonina Blindina, says that she herself has not faced any cases of threats despite the fact that she is the head of a state publication.
Antonina Blindina regretfully noted that regular cases of attacks against journalists testify that there are no effective measures on their protection formed by the state. Meanwhile, if the media representatives do not take steps to increase the level of their own safety, there is a high risk that tomorrow, the whole society will find itself in an informational vacuum.
"Kyrgyz media today reminds me of a little old lady from a poem of Nekrasov, who waits for barin(landlord) to come, to bring the wood and to repair the hut. However we should realize that nobody except us will repair it. We should work out, by ourselves, certain concrete measures for our own protection from beatings and murders as soon as possible. Tomorrow it can be too late," said Blindina.
Editor-in-chief of "Komsomolskaya Pravda in KR," Azamat Tynaev, also shares the opinion on the necessity of a union of journalists. Regardless the fact that there are number of media organizations in Kyrgyzstan that support media and protect their interests, as Tynaev said, their main weakness is that in the end, they are under somebody's control.
"Instead, we should aim at building an independent journalist league, which should be created by the efforts of the founders, chiefs of the local media. This organization should function on the basis of its own budget, and should not be controlled by the state or any other international donors," said Azamat Tynaev.
In addition to that, according to the editor-in-chief, safety of Kyrgyz journalists could be higher if the state strengthened its support of independent media, including by means of introducing more liberal tax legislation.
"This would allow Kyrgyz media to be more confident. Thus, they would have the opportunity to hire lawyers for protection of their employees in courts, to provide transportation means for journalists, to hire private security agencies for their protection, etc. However, unfortunately, nowadays, we can only dream about such things," noted the editor-in-chief of "Komsomol'skaya Pravda."
Assessing the general situation on the safety of journalists in the state, Azamat Tynaev said that it is disturbing. In addition, he called not to view crimes committed against journalists separately from the common criminal situation in the state.
"This brings a wrong conclusions on real situations in the state in connection with the safety of journalists. I absolutely do not agree when the cases of attacks against media representatives are presented as separate events. We should realize that today, no one is secure from a possible attack, be it a journalist or anyone else, and therefore, looking at the issue of attacks on journalists, we should take into account the general crime wave and facts concurrent with it," said Azamat Tynaev.
Regarding the question why there has been no show trial of those culpable for attacks against journalists yet, Azamat Tynaev suggested, "In my opinion, the reason for such situations is that law enforcement bodies believe if they start working on cases regarding journalists, they could face certain authorities, which could result in an unwanted outcome for them. Simple citizens would not beat a journalist peacefully walking on the street for no reason, would they? So the law enforcement bodies guess that certain interested powers are engaged, and it is better not to be involved in it. For this very reason, in my opinion, we do not witness any high profile trials on cases of attacks on Kyrgyz journalists."
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Erkin-Too," Saky Sadykov, thinks that numerous private media intentionally "make fuss about the issue of freedom of word and press in regard to journalists," thus trying to draw more attention to themselves.
"I personally think that before starting talks about the pressure against a certain journalist or a political order, it is necessary to look into the situation. Recall the story about the Osh operator that was beaten up allegedly for harsh materials and in the end, it turned out to be hooligans who attacked him. We also have many critical materials in respect of officials and other individuals. However, unlike the private media, we always check all information very carefully. Meanwhile, so called independent journalists work in the frame: I write what I hear," - noted Saky Sadykov.
The deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Erkin-Too," Muhtar Abilov, believes that today, nobody and nothing prevents the media to disseminate information if it is true and objective.
"In comparison with the neighboring countries, the freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan is more developed, and journalists know it themselves," he said. "For example, we have the Law on media, where it is clearly written that the press in Kyrgyzstan is free, and these are not empty words. Look how many newspapers we have that write anything they want. Though, in my opinion, sometimes Kyrgyz media has too much freedom of speech."
"As for the claims that officials of Kyrgyzstan, led by political motives, do not allegedly give journalists opportunity to speak out freely, honestly and to principally cover problems of the society, I do not agree with it. In addition to this, there is no point to assert that all journalists everywhere are beaten up. Everything is decided according to the law in our country, and the bright example is the court proceedings against "De Facto" and "Alibi" newspapers. This is an obvious illustration of the developed civilized system of protection of honor and dignity of citizens in our country, if the media disseminated wrong information," said Muhtar Abilov.
Without regard to opinions of media representatives on issues of freedom of speech and their own safety, the fact remains: in respect to pressure on journalists, it is increasing and attacks are becoming more brutal. And this, by no means can promote the freedom of speech.
In this connection, the question of generating clear complex measures on protecting media workers become more topical. If we leave everything as it is, there is a high possibility that Kyrgyz citizens will lose an opportunity to receive alternative information in the near future.
II. Non governmental organizations, political parties and state officials on safety of journalists in the Kyrgyz Republic
Non governmental organizations were one of the first that started being anxious about the situation on the freedom of speech and the safety of media workers in Kyrgyzstan. Their actions, in defence of the media representatives, reached a peak in March 2009. This was after the correspondent of the newspaper "Reporter Bishkek," Syrgak Abdyldaev, was brutally attacked on the 3rd of March. Unknown people stabbed him with a knife more than 20 times, broke his arms, ribs.... The journalist survived by a miracle, as medical staff reported later.
This incident had a wide resonance within the society. On the 5th of March, a group of non governmental organizations sent an open letter to the head of the republic, Kurmanbek Bakiev. It noted specifically that the core state bodies should concentrate their efforts on solution of the crime committed against journalists.
"We believe that the atmosphere of impunity of the crime against journalists causes an increase of self censorship by media representatives, and an avoidance of covering acute political, social and economical subjects. As a result, events in the world and in Kyrgyzstan are reported partially and in a biased way. This leads to inadequate awareness of the society," noted the letter.
Later on, in the end of April 2009, political parties and associations of the country forming the United Popular Movement(OND) directed/addressed demands "to stop the pressure against the freedom of speech" to the state authorities along with other demands. In the statement, they noted that if the state authorities do not stop the pressure against journalists, do not find the persons guilty in crimes against media workers, and do not stop limiting freedom of speech, they will use their rights to conduct republic-wide actions of protest. It is worth noting that afterwards, the United Popular movement has held different actions of protest, where, the issue on needing to end the pressure on the media was brought up.
It is also worth noting that the aggravated situation on the media in Kyrgyzstan was also reflected in the report "On state of rights and freedoms of a human being and a citizen in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2008," by the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic, Tursunbek Akun. This document was published in February 2009.
As noted in the report, in spite of the constitutional guarantees of the freedom of speech, conflicts with the media started to have systematic and purposeful character in the last years.
"Increase of court cases against media is a disturbing occurrence, and judicial opinion of solving such cases is biased as well. As a result, freedom of speech remains only a declaration and nothing more," noted Tursunbek Akun in his annual report.
However, the executive power of Kyrgyzstan has its own opinion on the question of the freedom of speech in the country. The minister of culture and information, Sultan Rayev, is convinced that "all conditions are created for developing freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan." He stated his opinion in Bishkek at the Roundtable "Informational aspects of humanitarian cooperation in CIS."
Sultan Rayev noted that there is no censorship whatsoever in the republic, and "more than 1200 registered media in the Kyrgyz Republic, majority of which is independent, have wide opportunities for active development."
"Certainly, there are some court proceedings involving media, however this is a normal process for any democratic society," noted the minister. At that, he drew attention to the fact that his department does everything possible to ameliorate the state of the media. Sultan Rayev assured that soon, there will be progressive laws promoting the protection of journalists and the development of freedom of speech.
Whereas Ministry of Internal Affaires of the Kyrgyz Republic denies accusations on its behalf that it is not interested in solving crimes against journalists. In May 15, 2009, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Talantbek Isaev, stated to media that "all crimes committed against Kyrgyz media is under control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
The Deputy Head of MIA said that the law enforcement bodies place high importance on all crimes where journalists have suffered. At that, he noted that media creates a big fuss around such cases, even though in majority cases attacks on journalists are not connected to their professional activity.
"Certainly, there are situations when this is the case. However, for instance, the beating up of an editor-in-chief of one of the newspapers, Ulugbek Babakulov, was purely the case of robbery," said Talantbek Isaev.
"Our society has formed a wrong stereotype: frequent attacks on journalists are caused by their professional activity," expressed the chief inspector of the press service of MIA KR, lieutenant colonel of militia Rahmatillo Ahmedov. In addition to this, he noted that the attack on the operator of TV channel Osh-TV is also not connected with his professional activity.
"The operator himself reported this the day after the incident," noted Rahmatillo Ahmedov. Along with this, he drew attention to the fact that media newspapers that constantly criticise MIA, in fact, do not provide protection to their own employees.
"We talk a lot about international standards. However, we have not managed to follow them. For instance, if in the west, a certain agency sends a journalist to fulfill a serious task, both sides discuss carefully all obligations, especially in case of extreme journalism. Unfortunately, there is no such practice in Kyrgyzstan. Media does not want to take responsibility for a journalist that fulfills his professional activity," noted Rahmatillo Ahmedov.
The deputy of Jogorku Kenesh, the member of the parliament committee on education, science, culture and informational policy, Galina Kulikova, is convinced that the activity on increasing journalists' safety should be started from changes in the legislation.
"In addition, media workers themselves should aim at founding different associations for their own protection and support to each other. It is important to understand that one man can't win the war, and if a journalist decided to write the truth, then the association should support him by a series of other articles on the same topic. In addition, all matters of media workers' protection is very important to the role of the recently created Secretariat of the President," said the deputy.
Assessing the present state of freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan, Galina Kulikova said that it is at quite a high level. "Our country is democratic and there was, there is and there will always be freedom of speech. It is important that journalists themselves always aim at objective coverage of events. The most important thing is that criticism is always constructive. It is always possible to use Aesopian language and not to directly mention a certain person that is criticized. A reader will understand who this concerns in any case. Unfortunately, only few journalists can use this technique and can claim to be high profile specialists."
"At that, I will not deny that some journalists in Kyrgyzstan are too biased. I personally dislike those who break ethical norms to please somebody or to gain popularity. I would like to say that the media representatives will be respected not for insults against the deputies, but for competent materials, which would serve as a civilized tool to stop shameless state officials," noted the deputy.
According to the other deputy of JK Kabai Karabekov, who used to be a known journalist in the past, the reason why Kyrgyz journalists are often biased is that Kyrgyz media often becomes a tool of political influence.
"I would like it if we had a large number of media expressing a centrist point of view. I would not like them to work in the interests of the government or the opposition. People should choose for themselves who is better. Nowadays, in Kyrgyzstan, the majority of media is either for whites, or for reds and this is completely unprofessional," believes the deputy.
In addition to what he has already said, the deputy dislikes the way the Kyrgyz journalists present their own materials. "I would suggest them to use less emotions and more analysis. When one reads journalistic materials, the content is 90 percent emotional and only 10 percent, facts. Readers who read the materials are those who must have emotions after reading articles, not journalists who write these articles. Only professional material can create an interest."
It is evident that the spectrum of opinions on the state of freedom of speech and safety of journalists in Kyrgyzstan is quite wide. And, as it turns out, many things depend on which part of the society is giving its assessment of these things.
The Kyrgyz political scientist Mars Sariev believes that to cardinally change the situation with the safety of journalists in Kyrgyzstan "at least one precedent of punishment for a crime against a journalist is necessary."
"We should aim to widely publicize cases of assault on journalists. Then, those forces that encroach upon freedom of speech, will think about the consequences of their intentions. In addition to this, the journalists should seek to create their own wide media community that would aim at protection of every journalist. Working out effective draft laws and their lobbying in the parliament is very important in this case," thinks the expert.
According to Mars Sariev, the position of their newspapers also plays an important role in the question of journalists' safety. "They should protect their employees by every possible means. Unfortunately this is a big problem nowadays. The paradox is that in Kyrgyzstan, the media tries not to investigate attacks on their journalists to stay afloat themselves. They take a position of an outside observer as soon as events turn out unpredictably, despite the fact that the newspapers themselves often assign journalists to prepare certain acute material.
Meanwhile, we should realize that as a rule there are certain political forces behind many newspapers that use journalists to confront other political forces. As a result, a journalist finds himself between two fires, becoming the most vulnerable member. As the saying goes: "When those in power are in conflict, it is the common people who suffer."
III. Media experts on the increase of safety for journalists.
Regardless of any position, there is always one question: how can one increase the level of safety for journalists and improve the freedom of speech?
Expert on media issues, the chairman of International Arbitration Court, and former media representative of the Kyrgyz Republic, Shamaral Maichiev, believes that the guarantee of journalist's safety directly depends on his presentation of objective and true information to the public. According to the expert, neither the state nor a newspaper can protect a journalist if he prepares false materials.
Shamaral Maichiev expressed an opinion that "journalists in Kyrgyzstan are prone to risk mainly in such cases when they write paid articles." In addition, he drew attention to the fact that we should not make early conclusions on the basis of attacks on media workers that take place often. Media expert noted that in view of the current worsening of the crime situation in the country,, not only journalists are in danger.
To the question on how to increase the safety of journalists, Shamaral Maichiev responded, "Risk of attack increases many times if it is an ordered material, however many journalists willingly go for it. It is not because they are lazy to fulfill their job more professionally and to look for several points of views. Often, the financial state of journalists leaves much to be desired. Therefore partiality of Kyrgyz journalists often has economical grounds."
The expert developed this idea further and noted that nowadays, the risk of attack on journalists covering political and criminal matters is the highest. In this connection, he noted that we should take into account the fact that "if a material is prepared professionally and presents only facts, then it is doubtful that somebody would even dare to attack the journalist. If the journalist uses sarcastic statements concerning the people he writes about, then the information itself has an insulting tone in its presentation and could be the reason for an attack."
Shamaral Maichiev noted that in cases when a specific journalist is threatened, he should not ignore the possibility of approaching police. In addition, the expert noted that the journalistic community should have thought about the creation of a united structure that would render journalists both psychological and legal help a long time ago.
"The journalistic community should struggle actively for its own rights and demand the implementation of laws and of the Constitution from the Kyrgyz government. Otherwise, under active actions of the state bodies concerning media and silent consent of the society Kyrgyz journalism will go down," stated Oleg Panfilov, the director of the Centre for Extreme Journalism (Moscow).
The expert believes that today, Kyrgyz media manages to hold the level of freedom of speech higher than in the neighboring countries mostly due to the existing traditions and high level of activity of the civil society. However, this can easily change. To be able to develop effectively, as Oleg Panfilov said, the media and every single journalist should avoid excessive politicisation and partiality.
"This is very important, since many attacks on Kyrgyz journalists are the consequence of their partiality, when they advocated views of certain political forces," noted the expert.
There are different opinions on the future of Kyrgyz media. Media expert from Ukraine, Zoya Kazanzhi, is convinced that it will be impossible for Kyrgyzstan to build its own policy separately from what is going on in Central Asian region today. Therefore, it is doubtful that the republic would have a higher level of execution of the journalists' rights than in neighboring countries. In other words, according to her "it is impossible to build freedom of media the Kyrgyz way.
To the question on how to improve the situation in regards to rights of journalists and the freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan, the expert replied, "The legislative branch should enact civilized laws in the media sphere, the executive branch should implement them, and the civil society should control relations in this sphere - both from the side of authorities and from the side of media. This exact model works in European countries. Unfortunately however, in former Soviet countries, we can only dream about it."
"Today, everything shows that journalists who work professionally suffer the most; and they have the most serious problems with their own safety. The rest of them, seeing how dangerous it is to work on acute matters, ask themselves whether they need it and whether it would not be easier to write and film good things about people. Such a position leads to the destruction of the idea of media freedom itself.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to understand that the freedom of press is crucial not for journalists, but for the society in the first place. We need to insert exactly these ideas in the minds of those who chose this profession of journalism. The creation of a professional and responsible environment helps to provide safety to each journalist; and only in this case, bargaining and threatening becomes useless. If journalists and the media can be bought and sold, their safety will always be threatened," said Zoya Kazanzhi.
A Kazakh political scientist, Eduard Poletaev, also has an opinion on the future of journalism in Kyrgyzstan. He expects that the authorities of Kyrgyzstan, led by the "contagious" example of its Central-Asian neighbors, will continue the pressure on independent media However, it is doubtful that this will bring about the "full tightening of screws."
"In spite of all attempts of the Kyrgyz authorities to get rid of the existing beginnings of freedom of speech, they will have to accept that the media will always have its own point of view. It will be impossible to return to the same level during the times of the beginning of restructuring (perestroika). While there are consumers of such information, it is impossible to kill freedom of speech; neither closure of press, nor court proceedings will help,"noted the expert.
"In the case of Kyrgyzstan, one can say that your journalists know the boundaries very well. They do not cross so called red flags. Thus, if no extraordinary cases take place, I do not see any implications that Kyrgyz authorities might toughen their relation to journalists," noted Eduard Poletaev.
"The Kyrgyz society will have rapid progress only when the authorities realize that independent journalists are not soldiers of a foreign army, and that they should be treated as our own citizens," believes Sanobar Shermatova, a member of the Expert council of RIA-Novosti.
The expert noted that many things regarding the development of freedom of speech and the execution of journalists' rights depend on how the state authorities listen to the opinion of the expert community and different researchers. Meanwhile, as she said, in Kyrgyzstan, there is a big problem with it today. However, we should not lose hope that authorities will realize how huge the role of media is in the life of the state.
To the question on how to increase the level of executing journalists' rights and to protect them from different cases of pressure in Kyrgyzstan, Sanobar Shermatova answered, "In the first place, they should get rid of the attitude of a noble prosecutor, teacher, agitator of certain ideas, which they like doing nowadays."
The Kyrgyz expert on media issues and the chairman of the Public Association "Journalists," Marat Tokoev, is convinced that in addition to this, the safety of journalists can be increased by wide publicity of each case of attack on a journalist.
In his opinion, it is very important since there is a direct link between the safety of journalists and the freedom of speech. He explained it the following way, "When a journalist is afraid to be punished for his own material, he stops being objective. He does not seek to cover certain subjects openly. He is afraid to raise an acute problem. In these cases, it is clearly seen that there is no freedom of speech at all. Journalist are just like any other person who has the sense of anxiety or concern in cases when he is under pressure. Practically, an inner self censorship appears. Moreover it is visibly intensified under physical pressure."
Also, Marat Tokoev drew attention to the fact that the growth of self censorship of Kyrgyz journalists is also caused by court proceedings against them. "Often, it happens when journalists write critical articles on specific people criticizing their actions. Often, the subject of a publication believes that the media has changed the facts, or has distorted his words. Moreover, I admit that there are such cases when journalists publish articles presenting their subjective opinion as fact.. In this matter, many things depend on who the journalist criticizes - a deputy, a state official or the president. Incidentally, the head of the state himself has never had legal proceedings with any journalist, but the General prosecutor intercedes well for him. It has sent warnings to the media many times with request to be more correct."
To the question on what recommendations he could give to journalists who prepare acute materials and nevertheless would like to protect themselves fully from the moral and physical pressure, Marat Tokoev replied, "The most important thing is to always use only facts. Journalists can do it, and when they want they write skilfully. It would be good if our journalists drew more attention to true information and tried to write without personalizing. Also, I would like to call journalists to be more supportive of each other. We should understand that if one journalist was beaten up today, tomorrow another journalist can also be beaten up. Therefore, it is very important to fully cover the cases of attacks on journalists."
The expert of the Secretariat of President, Ilim Karypbekov, also gave his recommendations to IPP on the issue of how to increase of freedom of speech and safety of journalists. Former media representative emphasized that today, the state system of power realizes that journalists need more attention, and noted that certain work is being carried out in this direction.
"The state system of power understands that the work of journalists is very difficult and sometimes dangerous, and therefore it has taken measures to support them. The concept of development of state informational policy is being prepared; tactical steps in the sphere of informational safety provision are being worked at; and the inventory of media resources of Kyrgyzstan has commenced. People in power today not only understand how to develop media in Kyrgyzstan, but also value the freedom of speech as inalienable attribute of the democratic state," said the expert.
Commenting on accusations against the state authorities by some media community and civil sector concerning the fact that the level of the freedom of speech has gradually descended regardless of many promising positive statements, Ilim Karypbekov said, "In fact, nobody has seriously evaluated the state of freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan. Therefore, it should not be done on the basis of separate facts. Nowadays, we choose to refer to a separate legal proceeding against a newspaper or a journalist, physical or any other pressure on a specific journalist, or research of international organizations based on the same court proceedings and cases of attack. However, the above listed is not an objective evaluation of the state of freedom of speech in the country."
"Let’s talk about the real state of affairs with freedom of speech and the safety of journalists after a careful research of the media sphere of Kyrgyzstan and an identification of qualitative indicators, reflecting the freedom of speech," emphasized Ilim Karypbekov.
Summarizing recommendations of experts, we can draw a conclusion that in the matter of freedom of speech and safety of journalists, many things depend not only from the state, but also from the community, media and journalists themselves.
The following can be singled out as priority measures:
1. Officials of Kyrgyzstan must efficiently follow corresponding norms of legislation and international standards in questions concerning the protection of journalists and the execution of their rights. (e.g., OSCE);
2. State officials should attract a wide range of interested people, including media experts, journalists and non governmental organizations as consultants in developing a state approach to the media sphere;
3. Law enforcement bodies must carefully investigate cases of attacks on journalists, and carry out fully all measures within the frame of the investigation, since this is an infringement of a citizen's political rights;
4. Media should aim at widely publicizing each case of attack on journalists;
5. Journalists themselves should seek to prepare objective and impartial materials. It is important to understand that the guarantee of safety of every media representative depends on the level of his impartial attitude to events;
6. Memos and "hotline": It is necessary to prepare memos on behavior of journalists while carrying out their professional duties in peaceful time and in extraordinary circumstances. Each media representative must follow the designed rules. In case of breach of their rights, a journalist should be able to seek for assistance from the "hotline" service, where he should be given a qualitative legal consultation, and if necessary, an attorney should be provided.
In conclusion, it should be noted that it is doubtful that the media and simple journalists will ever feel secure themselves until the complex of measures listed above are realized in the country. And this means that they will not be able to carry out their professional activity with total impartiality.
The question of safety for journalists is becoming more topical in Kyrgyzstan. Media representatives are now often rethinking about whether they should work on special investigations or cover acute political issues. Their concerns are based on the increasing frequency of crimes committed against journalists.
It is critical to familiarize oneself with the statistics of attacks against media representatives for the last five years to understand how dangerous it is nowadays to carry out journalistic activities in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the Public Association "Journalists," 8 cases of attacks on journalists and members of their family were registered in 2004. In 2005, it augmented to 14 cases; of which, two cases involved harming journalists of foreign media. In 2006, 12 cases of attack against media representatives were registered. The year of 2007 was the bloodiest, in which there were 19 cases and the murder of Alisher Saipov, the founder of the "Siesat" newspaper. During that same year, 6 cases of threats against journalists were documented.
In 2008, 5 cases of attack on journalists and one threat were recorded. Meanwhile, from the beginning of 2009, 4 cases have already been registered, in two of which journalists were beaten up with particular brutality. They were the correspondent of "Reporter Bishkek," Syrgak Abdyldaev, and the editor-in-chief of "Moscovskii Komsomolets v Kyrgyzskoi Respublike" newspaper, Ulugbek Babakulov. Along with them the editor-in-chief of "Tribuny," Yrysbek Omurzakov and Bahadir Kenjebaev, the chief operator of broadcasting company "Osh TV," were also beaten up.
The analysis of the growing crime rate against journalists clearly shows that the level of threat to their safety increases with the rise of tension in social and political life of the state.
I. Journalists of Kyrgyzstan share how dangerous it is for them to carry out their professional activity.
The media representatives of Kyrgyzstan regularly report that it is getting more dangerous to work as journalist. As a rule, they refer to the fact that every time an editorial board assigns them to carry out a special investigation or when they work on preparing acute political materials, they worry about their own safety. Practically, the fear of journalists to be injured for their work is so great that many of them have refused to work on potentially dangerous topics.
Leila Saralaeva, an independent journalist, has the point of view that "There are fewer independent brave journalists with active civil position in Kyrgyzstan."
"Somebody is disappointed, somebody is threatened... Nowadays an action can be brought or a newspaper can be put out of business with huge fines for carrying out a journalistic activity in our country. But this is not the worst scenario. The most terrible thing that can happen is that journalists can be ruthlessly beaten up, his arms and legs can be broken to force them to never tell the truth," - believes Saralaeva.
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Moskovskii komsomolets v Kyrgyzstane," Ulugbek Babakulov, thinks that it is useless to call journalists to be more cautious and not to write on acute subjects. He explained that the journalist is subordinate, dependent on his employer: "Thus, his material will look the way his editor and founder want it to be. Another question is whether the journalist would sign his name under this material. However the problem is that if he does not agree with terms of the newspaper they will always find a replacement for him."
To a certain degree, as Ulugbek Babakulov said, journalists could increase their own safety if they always prepare objective materials. However, according to him it is meaningless to require this from Kyrgyz media, behind which there are always certain political forces.
"The majority of media in Kyrgyzstan serve certain individuals and oligarchs. Therefore, it is quite natural that they are promoting their own interests and they can not present a wide scope of opinions. For example, it is natural that following a certain line, they cannot publish pro-governmental materials and oppositional in character on the same page," emphasized Ulugbek Babakulov.
It is worth noting that there is widespread opinion among representatives of the private media of Kyrgyzstan that they are more prone to risk while carrying out their professional duties than journalists of the state media. However, there are opposite opinions. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Chuiskie Izvestiya," Antonina Blindina, says that she herself has not faced any cases of threats despite the fact that she is the head of a state publication.
Antonina Blindina regretfully noted that regular cases of attacks against journalists testify that there are no effective measures on their protection formed by the state. Meanwhile, if the media representatives do not take steps to increase the level of their own safety, there is a high risk that tomorrow, the whole society will find itself in an informational vacuum.
"Kyrgyz media today reminds me of a little old lady from a poem of Nekrasov, who waits for barin(landlord) to come, to bring the wood and to repair the hut. However we should realize that nobody except us will repair it. We should work out, by ourselves, certain concrete measures for our own protection from beatings and murders as soon as possible. Tomorrow it can be too late," said Blindina.
Editor-in-chief of "Komsomolskaya Pravda in KR," Azamat Tynaev, also shares the opinion on the necessity of a union of journalists. Regardless the fact that there are number of media organizations in Kyrgyzstan that support media and protect their interests, as Tynaev said, their main weakness is that in the end, they are under somebody's control.
"Instead, we should aim at building an independent journalist league, which should be created by the efforts of the founders, chiefs of the local media. This organization should function on the basis of its own budget, and should not be controlled by the state or any other international donors," said Azamat Tynaev.
In addition to that, according to the editor-in-chief, safety of Kyrgyz journalists could be higher if the state strengthened its support of independent media, including by means of introducing more liberal tax legislation.
"This would allow Kyrgyz media to be more confident. Thus, they would have the opportunity to hire lawyers for protection of their employees in courts, to provide transportation means for journalists, to hire private security agencies for their protection, etc. However, unfortunately, nowadays, we can only dream about such things," noted the editor-in-chief of "Komsomol'skaya Pravda."
Assessing the general situation on the safety of journalists in the state, Azamat Tynaev said that it is disturbing. In addition, he called not to view crimes committed against journalists separately from the common criminal situation in the state.
"This brings a wrong conclusions on real situations in the state in connection with the safety of journalists. I absolutely do not agree when the cases of attacks against media representatives are presented as separate events. We should realize that today, no one is secure from a possible attack, be it a journalist or anyone else, and therefore, looking at the issue of attacks on journalists, we should take into account the general crime wave and facts concurrent with it," said Azamat Tynaev.
Regarding the question why there has been no show trial of those culpable for attacks against journalists yet, Azamat Tynaev suggested, "In my opinion, the reason for such situations is that law enforcement bodies believe if they start working on cases regarding journalists, they could face certain authorities, which could result in an unwanted outcome for them. Simple citizens would not beat a journalist peacefully walking on the street for no reason, would they? So the law enforcement bodies guess that certain interested powers are engaged, and it is better not to be involved in it. For this very reason, in my opinion, we do not witness any high profile trials on cases of attacks on Kyrgyz journalists."
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Erkin-Too," Saky Sadykov, thinks that numerous private media intentionally "make fuss about the issue of freedom of word and press in regard to journalists," thus trying to draw more attention to themselves.
"I personally think that before starting talks about the pressure against a certain journalist or a political order, it is necessary to look into the situation. Recall the story about the Osh operator that was beaten up allegedly for harsh materials and in the end, it turned out to be hooligans who attacked him. We also have many critical materials in respect of officials and other individuals. However, unlike the private media, we always check all information very carefully. Meanwhile, so called independent journalists work in the frame: I write what I hear," - noted Saky Sadykov.
The deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Erkin-Too," Muhtar Abilov, believes that today, nobody and nothing prevents the media to disseminate information if it is true and objective.
"In comparison with the neighboring countries, the freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan is more developed, and journalists know it themselves," he said. "For example, we have the Law on media, where it is clearly written that the press in Kyrgyzstan is free, and these are not empty words. Look how many newspapers we have that write anything they want. Though, in my opinion, sometimes Kyrgyz media has too much freedom of speech."
"As for the claims that officials of Kyrgyzstan, led by political motives, do not allegedly give journalists opportunity to speak out freely, honestly and to principally cover problems of the society, I do not agree with it. In addition to this, there is no point to assert that all journalists everywhere are beaten up. Everything is decided according to the law in our country, and the bright example is the court proceedings against "De Facto" and "Alibi" newspapers. This is an obvious illustration of the developed civilized system of protection of honor and dignity of citizens in our country, if the media disseminated wrong information," said Muhtar Abilov.
Without regard to opinions of media representatives on issues of freedom of speech and their own safety, the fact remains: in respect to pressure on journalists, it is increasing and attacks are becoming more brutal. And this, by no means can promote the freedom of speech.
In this connection, the question of generating clear complex measures on protecting media workers become more topical. If we leave everything as it is, there is a high possibility that Kyrgyz citizens will lose an opportunity to receive alternative information in the near future.
II. Non governmental organizations, political parties and state officials on safety of journalists in the Kyrgyz Republic
Non governmental organizations were one of the first that started being anxious about the situation on the freedom of speech and the safety of media workers in Kyrgyzstan. Their actions, in defence of the media representatives, reached a peak in March 2009. This was after the correspondent of the newspaper "Reporter Bishkek," Syrgak Abdyldaev, was brutally attacked on the 3rd of March. Unknown people stabbed him with a knife more than 20 times, broke his arms, ribs.... The journalist survived by a miracle, as medical staff reported later.
This incident had a wide resonance within the society. On the 5th of March, a group of non governmental organizations sent an open letter to the head of the republic, Kurmanbek Bakiev. It noted specifically that the core state bodies should concentrate their efforts on solution of the crime committed against journalists.
"We believe that the atmosphere of impunity of the crime against journalists causes an increase of self censorship by media representatives, and an avoidance of covering acute political, social and economical subjects. As a result, events in the world and in Kyrgyzstan are reported partially and in a biased way. This leads to inadequate awareness of the society," noted the letter.
Later on, in the end of April 2009, political parties and associations of the country forming the United Popular Movement(OND) directed/addressed demands "to stop the pressure against the freedom of speech" to the state authorities along with other demands. In the statement, they noted that if the state authorities do not stop the pressure against journalists, do not find the persons guilty in crimes against media workers, and do not stop limiting freedom of speech, they will use their rights to conduct republic-wide actions of protest. It is worth noting that afterwards, the United Popular movement has held different actions of protest, where, the issue on needing to end the pressure on the media was brought up.
It is also worth noting that the aggravated situation on the media in Kyrgyzstan was also reflected in the report "On state of rights and freedoms of a human being and a citizen in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2008," by the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic, Tursunbek Akun. This document was published in February 2009.
As noted in the report, in spite of the constitutional guarantees of the freedom of speech, conflicts with the media started to have systematic and purposeful character in the last years.
"Increase of court cases against media is a disturbing occurrence, and judicial opinion of solving such cases is biased as well. As a result, freedom of speech remains only a declaration and nothing more," noted Tursunbek Akun in his annual report.
However, the executive power of Kyrgyzstan has its own opinion on the question of the freedom of speech in the country. The minister of culture and information, Sultan Rayev, is convinced that "all conditions are created for developing freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan." He stated his opinion in Bishkek at the Roundtable "Informational aspects of humanitarian cooperation in CIS."
Sultan Rayev noted that there is no censorship whatsoever in the republic, and "more than 1200 registered media in the Kyrgyz Republic, majority of which is independent, have wide opportunities for active development."
"Certainly, there are some court proceedings involving media, however this is a normal process for any democratic society," noted the minister. At that, he drew attention to the fact that his department does everything possible to ameliorate the state of the media. Sultan Rayev assured that soon, there will be progressive laws promoting the protection of journalists and the development of freedom of speech.
Whereas Ministry of Internal Affaires of the Kyrgyz Republic denies accusations on its behalf that it is not interested in solving crimes against journalists. In May 15, 2009, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Talantbek Isaev, stated to media that "all crimes committed against Kyrgyz media is under control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
The Deputy Head of MIA said that the law enforcement bodies place high importance on all crimes where journalists have suffered. At that, he noted that media creates a big fuss around such cases, even though in majority cases attacks on journalists are not connected to their professional activity.
"Certainly, there are situations when this is the case. However, for instance, the beating up of an editor-in-chief of one of the newspapers, Ulugbek Babakulov, was purely the case of robbery," said Talantbek Isaev.
"Our society has formed a wrong stereotype: frequent attacks on journalists are caused by their professional activity," expressed the chief inspector of the press service of MIA KR, lieutenant colonel of militia Rahmatillo Ahmedov. In addition to this, he noted that the attack on the operator of TV channel Osh-TV is also not connected with his professional activity.
"The operator himself reported this the day after the incident," noted Rahmatillo Ahmedov. Along with this, he drew attention to the fact that media newspapers that constantly criticise MIA, in fact, do not provide protection to their own employees.
"We talk a lot about international standards. However, we have not managed to follow them. For instance, if in the west, a certain agency sends a journalist to fulfill a serious task, both sides discuss carefully all obligations, especially in case of extreme journalism. Unfortunately, there is no such practice in Kyrgyzstan. Media does not want to take responsibility for a journalist that fulfills his professional activity," noted Rahmatillo Ahmedov.
The deputy of Jogorku Kenesh, the member of the parliament committee on education, science, culture and informational policy, Galina Kulikova, is convinced that the activity on increasing journalists' safety should be started from changes in the legislation.
"In addition, media workers themselves should aim at founding different associations for their own protection and support to each other. It is important to understand that one man can't win the war, and if a journalist decided to write the truth, then the association should support him by a series of other articles on the same topic. In addition, all matters of media workers' protection is very important to the role of the recently created Secretariat of the President," said the deputy.
Assessing the present state of freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan, Galina Kulikova said that it is at quite a high level. "Our country is democratic and there was, there is and there will always be freedom of speech. It is important that journalists themselves always aim at objective coverage of events. The most important thing is that criticism is always constructive. It is always possible to use Aesopian language and not to directly mention a certain person that is criticized. A reader will understand who this concerns in any case. Unfortunately, only few journalists can use this technique and can claim to be high profile specialists."
"At that, I will not deny that some journalists in Kyrgyzstan are too biased. I personally dislike those who break ethical norms to please somebody or to gain popularity. I would like to say that the media representatives will be respected not for insults against the deputies, but for competent materials, which would serve as a civilized tool to stop shameless state officials," noted the deputy.
According to the other deputy of JK Kabai Karabekov, who used to be a known journalist in the past, the reason why Kyrgyz journalists are often biased is that Kyrgyz media often becomes a tool of political influence.
"I would like it if we had a large number of media expressing a centrist point of view. I would not like them to work in the interests of the government or the opposition. People should choose for themselves who is better. Nowadays, in Kyrgyzstan, the majority of media is either for whites, or for reds and this is completely unprofessional," believes the deputy.
In addition to what he has already said, the deputy dislikes the way the Kyrgyz journalists present their own materials. "I would suggest them to use less emotions and more analysis. When one reads journalistic materials, the content is 90 percent emotional and only 10 percent, facts. Readers who read the materials are those who must have emotions after reading articles, not journalists who write these articles. Only professional material can create an interest."
It is evident that the spectrum of opinions on the state of freedom of speech and safety of journalists in Kyrgyzstan is quite wide. And, as it turns out, many things depend on which part of the society is giving its assessment of these things.
The Kyrgyz political scientist Mars Sariev believes that to cardinally change the situation with the safety of journalists in Kyrgyzstan "at least one precedent of punishment for a crime against a journalist is necessary."
"We should aim to widely publicize cases of assault on journalists. Then, those forces that encroach upon freedom of speech, will think about the consequences of their intentions. In addition to this, the journalists should seek to create their own wide media community that would aim at protection of every journalist. Working out effective draft laws and their lobbying in the parliament is very important in this case," thinks the expert.
According to Mars Sariev, the position of their newspapers also plays an important role in the question of journalists' safety. "They should protect their employees by every possible means. Unfortunately this is a big problem nowadays. The paradox is that in Kyrgyzstan, the media tries not to investigate attacks on their journalists to stay afloat themselves. They take a position of an outside observer as soon as events turn out unpredictably, despite the fact that the newspapers themselves often assign journalists to prepare certain acute material.
Meanwhile, we should realize that as a rule there are certain political forces behind many newspapers that use journalists to confront other political forces. As a result, a journalist finds himself between two fires, becoming the most vulnerable member. As the saying goes: "When those in power are in conflict, it is the common people who suffer."
III. Media experts on the increase of safety for journalists.
Regardless of any position, there is always one question: how can one increase the level of safety for journalists and improve the freedom of speech?
Expert on media issues, the chairman of International Arbitration Court, and former media representative of the Kyrgyz Republic, Shamaral Maichiev, believes that the guarantee of journalist's safety directly depends on his presentation of objective and true information to the public. According to the expert, neither the state nor a newspaper can protect a journalist if he prepares false materials.
Shamaral Maichiev expressed an opinion that "journalists in Kyrgyzstan are prone to risk mainly in such cases when they write paid articles." In addition, he drew attention to the fact that we should not make early conclusions on the basis of attacks on media workers that take place often. Media expert noted that in view of the current worsening of the crime situation in the country,, not only journalists are in danger.
To the question on how to increase the safety of journalists, Shamaral Maichiev responded, "Risk of attack increases many times if it is an ordered material, however many journalists willingly go for it. It is not because they are lazy to fulfill their job more professionally and to look for several points of views. Often, the financial state of journalists leaves much to be desired. Therefore partiality of Kyrgyz journalists often has economical grounds."
The expert developed this idea further and noted that nowadays, the risk of attack on journalists covering political and criminal matters is the highest. In this connection, he noted that we should take into account the fact that "if a material is prepared professionally and presents only facts, then it is doubtful that somebody would even dare to attack the journalist. If the journalist uses sarcastic statements concerning the people he writes about, then the information itself has an insulting tone in its presentation and could be the reason for an attack."
Shamaral Maichiev noted that in cases when a specific journalist is threatened, he should not ignore the possibility of approaching police. In addition, the expert noted that the journalistic community should have thought about the creation of a united structure that would render journalists both psychological and legal help a long time ago.
"The journalistic community should struggle actively for its own rights and demand the implementation of laws and of the Constitution from the Kyrgyz government. Otherwise, under active actions of the state bodies concerning media and silent consent of the society Kyrgyz journalism will go down," stated Oleg Panfilov, the director of the Centre for Extreme Journalism (Moscow).
The expert believes that today, Kyrgyz media manages to hold the level of freedom of speech higher than in the neighboring countries mostly due to the existing traditions and high level of activity of the civil society. However, this can easily change. To be able to develop effectively, as Oleg Panfilov said, the media and every single journalist should avoid excessive politicisation and partiality.
"This is very important, since many attacks on Kyrgyz journalists are the consequence of their partiality, when they advocated views of certain political forces," noted the expert.
There are different opinions on the future of Kyrgyz media. Media expert from Ukraine, Zoya Kazanzhi, is convinced that it will be impossible for Kyrgyzstan to build its own policy separately from what is going on in Central Asian region today. Therefore, it is doubtful that the republic would have a higher level of execution of the journalists' rights than in neighboring countries. In other words, according to her "it is impossible to build freedom of media the Kyrgyz way.
To the question on how to improve the situation in regards to rights of journalists and the freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan, the expert replied, "The legislative branch should enact civilized laws in the media sphere, the executive branch should implement them, and the civil society should control relations in this sphere - both from the side of authorities and from the side of media. This exact model works in European countries. Unfortunately however, in former Soviet countries, we can only dream about it."
"Today, everything shows that journalists who work professionally suffer the most; and they have the most serious problems with their own safety. The rest of them, seeing how dangerous it is to work on acute matters, ask themselves whether they need it and whether it would not be easier to write and film good things about people. Such a position leads to the destruction of the idea of media freedom itself.
Meanwhile, it is necessary to understand that the freedom of press is crucial not for journalists, but for the society in the first place. We need to insert exactly these ideas in the minds of those who chose this profession of journalism. The creation of a professional and responsible environment helps to provide safety to each journalist; and only in this case, bargaining and threatening becomes useless. If journalists and the media can be bought and sold, their safety will always be threatened," said Zoya Kazanzhi.
A Kazakh political scientist, Eduard Poletaev, also has an opinion on the future of journalism in Kyrgyzstan. He expects that the authorities of Kyrgyzstan, led by the "contagious" example of its Central-Asian neighbors, will continue the pressure on independent media However, it is doubtful that this will bring about the "full tightening of screws."
"In spite of all attempts of the Kyrgyz authorities to get rid of the existing beginnings of freedom of speech, they will have to accept that the media will always have its own point of view. It will be impossible to return to the same level during the times of the beginning of restructuring (perestroika). While there are consumers of such information, it is impossible to kill freedom of speech; neither closure of press, nor court proceedings will help,"noted the expert.
"In the case of Kyrgyzstan, one can say that your journalists know the boundaries very well. They do not cross so called red flags. Thus, if no extraordinary cases take place, I do not see any implications that Kyrgyz authorities might toughen their relation to journalists," noted Eduard Poletaev.
"The Kyrgyz society will have rapid progress only when the authorities realize that independent journalists are not soldiers of a foreign army, and that they should be treated as our own citizens," believes Sanobar Shermatova, a member of the Expert council of RIA-Novosti.
The expert noted that many things regarding the development of freedom of speech and the execution of journalists' rights depend on how the state authorities listen to the opinion of the expert community and different researchers. Meanwhile, as she said, in Kyrgyzstan, there is a big problem with it today. However, we should not lose hope that authorities will realize how huge the role of media is in the life of the state.
To the question on how to increase the level of executing journalists' rights and to protect them from different cases of pressure in Kyrgyzstan, Sanobar Shermatova answered, "In the first place, they should get rid of the attitude of a noble prosecutor, teacher, agitator of certain ideas, which they like doing nowadays."
The Kyrgyz expert on media issues and the chairman of the Public Association "Journalists," Marat Tokoev, is convinced that in addition to this, the safety of journalists can be increased by wide publicity of each case of attack on a journalist.
In his opinion, it is very important since there is a direct link between the safety of journalists and the freedom of speech. He explained it the following way, "When a journalist is afraid to be punished for his own material, he stops being objective. He does not seek to cover certain subjects openly. He is afraid to raise an acute problem. In these cases, it is clearly seen that there is no freedom of speech at all. Journalist are just like any other person who has the sense of anxiety or concern in cases when he is under pressure. Practically, an inner self censorship appears. Moreover it is visibly intensified under physical pressure."
Also, Marat Tokoev drew attention to the fact that the growth of self censorship of Kyrgyz journalists is also caused by court proceedings against them. "Often, it happens when journalists write critical articles on specific people criticizing their actions. Often, the subject of a publication believes that the media has changed the facts, or has distorted his words. Moreover, I admit that there are such cases when journalists publish articles presenting their subjective opinion as fact.. In this matter, many things depend on who the journalist criticizes - a deputy, a state official or the president. Incidentally, the head of the state himself has never had legal proceedings with any journalist, but the General prosecutor intercedes well for him. It has sent warnings to the media many times with request to be more correct."
To the question on what recommendations he could give to journalists who prepare acute materials and nevertheless would like to protect themselves fully from the moral and physical pressure, Marat Tokoev replied, "The most important thing is to always use only facts. Journalists can do it, and when they want they write skilfully. It would be good if our journalists drew more attention to true information and tried to write without personalizing. Also, I would like to call journalists to be more supportive of each other. We should understand that if one journalist was beaten up today, tomorrow another journalist can also be beaten up. Therefore, it is very important to fully cover the cases of attacks on journalists."
The expert of the Secretariat of President, Ilim Karypbekov, also gave his recommendations to IPP on the issue of how to increase of freedom of speech and safety of journalists. Former media representative emphasized that today, the state system of power realizes that journalists need more attention, and noted that certain work is being carried out in this direction.
"The state system of power understands that the work of journalists is very difficult and sometimes dangerous, and therefore it has taken measures to support them. The concept of development of state informational policy is being prepared; tactical steps in the sphere of informational safety provision are being worked at; and the inventory of media resources of Kyrgyzstan has commenced. People in power today not only understand how to develop media in Kyrgyzstan, but also value the freedom of speech as inalienable attribute of the democratic state," said the expert.
Commenting on accusations against the state authorities by some media community and civil sector concerning the fact that the level of the freedom of speech has gradually descended regardless of many promising positive statements, Ilim Karypbekov said, "In fact, nobody has seriously evaluated the state of freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan. Therefore, it should not be done on the basis of separate facts. Nowadays, we choose to refer to a separate legal proceeding against a newspaper or a journalist, physical or any other pressure on a specific journalist, or research of international organizations based on the same court proceedings and cases of attack. However, the above listed is not an objective evaluation of the state of freedom of speech in the country."
"Let’s talk about the real state of affairs with freedom of speech and the safety of journalists after a careful research of the media sphere of Kyrgyzstan and an identification of qualitative indicators, reflecting the freedom of speech," emphasized Ilim Karypbekov.
Summarizing recommendations of experts, we can draw a conclusion that in the matter of freedom of speech and safety of journalists, many things depend not only from the state, but also from the community, media and journalists themselves.
The following can be singled out as priority measures:
1. Officials of Kyrgyzstan must efficiently follow corresponding norms of legislation and international standards in questions concerning the protection of journalists and the execution of their rights. (e.g., OSCE);
2. State officials should attract a wide range of interested people, including media experts, journalists and non governmental organizations as consultants in developing a state approach to the media sphere;
3. Law enforcement bodies must carefully investigate cases of attacks on journalists, and carry out fully all measures within the frame of the investigation, since this is an infringement of a citizen's political rights;
4. Media should aim at widely publicizing each case of attack on journalists;
5. Journalists themselves should seek to prepare objective and impartial materials. It is important to understand that the guarantee of safety of every media representative depends on the level of his impartial attitude to events;
6. Memos and "hotline": It is necessary to prepare memos on behavior of journalists while carrying out their professional duties in peaceful time and in extraordinary circumstances. Each media representative must follow the designed rules. In case of breach of their rights, a journalist should be able to seek for assistance from the "hotline" service, where he should be given a qualitative legal consultation, and if necessary, an attorney should be provided.
In conclusion, it should be noted that it is doubtful that the media and simple journalists will ever feel secure themselves until the complex of measures listed above are realized in the country. And this means that they will not be able to carry out their professional activity with total impartiality.
