Authorities Muzzle Opposition Papers
Authorities Muzzle Opposition Papers
The seizure of print-runs of opposition newspapers by the Kyrgyz authorities could be the first step towards total censorship in Kyrgyzstan, NBCentralAsia observers warn.
On the night of April 19-20, after an opposition rally was broken up by riot police, the authorities prevented the following day’s edition of four opposition newspapers from coming out. Printing equipment was taken from the Centre for Media Support, an independent printing house set up with United States support which puts out most of Kyrgyzstan’s independent press publications. This made it impossible for the April 20 editions of the Agym newspaper, owned by opposition member of parliament Melis Eshimkanov, as well as Kyrgyz Ruhu, Apta and Aykyn.
Kyrgyzstan’s media ombudsman Shamaral Maychiev said an investigator from the National Security Committee, GKNB, had confiscated both the print-runs of the newspapers and electronic copies on computer disk.
“According to the media law, computer disks can only be seized with a court order. A criminal case must have been launched before items can be confiscated, and I suspect the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case the day before so as to justify the seizures. However, they have ignored media legislation which bans seizure without a court order,” Maychiev said.
Medetbek Saliev, head of the GKNB’s investigations unit, said, “I can’t give you an explanation why this happened without a court order.”
Prosecutor general Elmurza Satybaldiev told NBCentralAsia, “If investigators seized the print-runs of several newspapers, it means they must have had grounds to do so. I have not seen all the documents, so I can’t comment on it officially until I have.”
Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, believes the authorities’ actions are designed to intimidate the opposition.
“This may have been an act of intimidation, a step towards all-out censorship of the media, or an attempt to bring the last [media] sources of information under the authorities’ control,” he said.
Ibraimov predicted that repressive measures of this kind would only give the opposition added incentive to continue its struggle against the authorities.
Asiya Sasykbaeva, director of the human rights centre Interbilim and co-chair of the opposition Movement for Reforms, says the authorities’ actions amounted to a gross violation of the constitution. “It looks like the authorities had a prior plan to start picking off [its opponents] on April 19 – breaking up the demonstration, closing opposition media, intimidating opposition supporters and so on,” she said.
Jazgul Masalieva, deputy editor of Kyrgyz Ruhu, one of the papers that was prevented from publishing, is certain the authorities want to introduce censorship. The edition that was seized contained articles in support of the United Front for a Worthy Future for Kyrgyzstan and a report criticising the authorities’ actions against the rally on Alatoo square.
Masalieva said there were no independent television channels left in Kyrgyzstan, so the authorities had decided to curb the remaining four opposition newspapers.
Elvira Sarieva, a member of the Public Chamber for Media Issues, notes that the reorganisation of TV stations has not been in the opposition’s favour. In contrast to the detailed reports that then opposition-friendly NTS channel carried on demonstrations last November, the only non-government coverage of the April 2007 rally was in the newspapers.
“Newspapers were the opposition’s main tool, so the authorities closed some opposition papers to take away its mouthpiece,” Sarieva said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
On the night of April 19-20, after an opposition rally was broken up by riot police, the authorities prevented the following day’s edition of four opposition newspapers from coming out. Printing equipment was taken from the Centre for Media Support, an independent printing house set up with United States support which puts out most of Kyrgyzstan’s independent press publications. This made it impossible for the April 20 editions of the Agym newspaper, owned by opposition member of parliament Melis Eshimkanov, as well as Kyrgyz Ruhu, Apta and Aykyn.
Kyrgyzstan’s media ombudsman Shamaral Maychiev said an investigator from the National Security Committee, GKNB, had confiscated both the print-runs of the newspapers and electronic copies on computer disk.
“According to the media law, computer disks can only be seized with a court order. A criminal case must have been launched before items can be confiscated, and I suspect the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case the day before so as to justify the seizures. However, they have ignored media legislation which bans seizure without a court order,” Maychiev said.
Medetbek Saliev, head of the GKNB’s investigations unit, said, “I can’t give you an explanation why this happened without a court order.”
Prosecutor general Elmurza Satybaldiev told NBCentralAsia, “If investigators seized the print-runs of several newspapers, it means they must have had grounds to do so. I have not seen all the documents, so I can’t comment on it officially until I have.”
Tamerlan Ibraimov, director of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies, believes the authorities’ actions are designed to intimidate the opposition.
“This may have been an act of intimidation, a step towards all-out censorship of the media, or an attempt to bring the last [media] sources of information under the authorities’ control,” he said.
Ibraimov predicted that repressive measures of this kind would only give the opposition added incentive to continue its struggle against the authorities.
Asiya Sasykbaeva, director of the human rights centre Interbilim and co-chair of the opposition Movement for Reforms, says the authorities’ actions amounted to a gross violation of the constitution. “It looks like the authorities had a prior plan to start picking off [its opponents] on April 19 – breaking up the demonstration, closing opposition media, intimidating opposition supporters and so on,” she said.
Jazgul Masalieva, deputy editor of Kyrgyz Ruhu, one of the papers that was prevented from publishing, is certain the authorities want to introduce censorship. The edition that was seized contained articles in support of the United Front for a Worthy Future for Kyrgyzstan and a report criticising the authorities’ actions against the rally on Alatoo square.
Masalieva said there were no independent television channels left in Kyrgyzstan, so the authorities had decided to curb the remaining four opposition newspapers.
Elvira Sarieva, a member of the Public Chamber for Media Issues, notes that the reorganisation of TV stations has not been in the opposition’s favour. In contrast to the detailed reports that then opposition-friendly NTS channel carried on demonstrations last November, the only non-government coverage of the April 2007 rally was in the newspapers.
“Newspapers were the opposition’s main tool, so the authorities closed some opposition papers to take away its mouthpiece,” Sarieva said.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
