KYRGYZSTAN RESTRICTS FREEDOM OF SPEECH

font-family:"Lucida Bright"">On January 14, vice Prime Minister
Nikolay Tanaev signed a governmental decree that contradicts the most
important democratic reforms in Kyrgyzstan during the last decade. The
Government justifies the enactment of the decree “On some issues of
publishing” through the need to combat the penetration of the ideology of
extremist organizations, especially Hizb-ut-Tahrir, claiming that it directly
follows from Kyrgyz Republic’s duties to the antiterrorist Coalition and to
the international community of countering international terrorism. 

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Bright"">The Decree
obliges the Interior affairs Ministry and the customs authorities to ensure
strict control and registration of the import to the Kyrgyz Republic of
typographical, polygraph, and of other printing equipment. The media, however,
is critical. The editor of “Moya stolitza” newspaper Rina Prijivoyt says.
“This stern document appeared here and now for one obvious reason: because
of the intention of the USA and EU, under severe time pressure, to establish
an International Publishing house in Bishkek.” Until now, the printing of
mass media has basically been dependent on the will of the monopolistic
publishing house Uchkun, which often charges extremely high fees and
occasionally decides simply not to sign an agreement with independent
publications. In particular, the seventh point of the temporary regulation
stipulates that the right to operate “publishing enterprises belong to legal
entities of the Kyrgyz Republic registered as individual entrepreneurs in
accordance with the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic”. This implies that
the International Publishing House will be prohibited from publishing printed
matters in Kyrgyzstan. 

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Bright"">On January 19,
the Joint Stock company Uchkun refused to print Saturday’s issue of the
recently established newspaper “Moya stolitza”. The director of Uchkun,
Kanybek Imanaliev stated that “Moya stolitza” undermines Uchkun’s
reputation. Internews- Kyrgyzstan commented that “this statement violates
the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic that guarantees freedom of speech and
the rights of journalists to investigate and report issues related to
publicity”. On January 29 “Uchkun” also refused to print the weekly
newspaper “Res Publica”, which from January 19 started to publish
materials of of Moya stolitza” journalists. On January 28, the chief editors
of seven independent newspapers appealed to the leadership of the country with
a claim to stop the harassment of independent mass media. The President of the
NGO Coalition, Tolekan Ismailova, stated that she would undertake measures to
defend the independent mass media that is prevented from being published. Two
days later, the Bishkek city arbitration court ruled to order the Uchkun
publishing house to issue the “Moya Stolitza” newspaper until the
investigation is finished and a court decision will be reached. 

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Bright"">The United
States expressed concern about the newly passed decree. The Deputy Chief of
Mission of the US mission to the OSCE, Douglas Davidson, thinks that a
“request of registration of printing and copying equipment within next month
and registration of companies providing such services would be a pernicious
blow to the freedom of the media and to freedom of speech in the Kyrgyz
Republic”.

font-family:"Lucida Bright"">The Central Asian Agency of Political
Research states that the decree issued by the Kyrgyz Government is reminiscent
of an attempt to justify attempts to restrain the opposition in the face of
the world community, and first and foremost, towards its main donor, the
United States. According to Prijivoyt, “double standards and double morality
has been practiced for a long time in our country. The West enjoys appreciates
promises to develop democracy, the excellent drafts of new laws, etc. But
domestically, arrests of politicians, struggle against heterodoxies, pressure
on the media and violations of human rights are practiced. Immediately after
signing an agreement with the U.S. on the deployment of U.S. troops at Manas
airport, such appalling actions are taken. It’s a principle of quid pro quo:
we gave you an airport, now please close your eyes to our moves away from
democracy.”

mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Bright"">The conflict
between the mass media and the government is escalating in Kyrgyzstan. Since
the standoff with the mass media occurred after the arrest of member of
parliament Beknazarov, one could suppose that official Bishkek fears the rise
of oppositional feelings after the massive reporting of that event. Moreover,
the arrest of the deputy whipped up those, who had not earlier contradicted
the President and his affiliates. However, these extreme measures against the
representatives of opposition and mass media on the part of the authorities
could lead to diametrically opposite outcomes and heat up the situation in
republic even further.

mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Aziz
Soltobaev font-family:"Lucida Bright";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">, American University in Kyrgyzstan.