Posts Tagged ‘Kyrgyzstan’
April 20th, 2010
Microsoft has
denied claims that its staff were involved in the silencing of internet television station Stan TV, which was
raided by police on April 1. Initial reports claimed the police were accompanied by
a Microsoft representative, who came armed with an order from Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General’s office authorising him to seal the station’s equipment. The order alleged that Stan Media LLC was using pirated Microsoft software.The use of anti-piracy legislation by local law enforcement agencies to legitimise harassment of the independent media is becoming more frequent in ex-Soviet republics,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In November 2007, the Samara edition of award-winning Russian newspaper
Novaya Gazeta was effectively shut down due to accusations that the company was using unlicensed Microsoft software. In 2008,
Vyatsky Nablyudatel was subject of similar allegations, but took the decision to move over to open-source software to beat the regulations, as
its editor reported in
Index on Censorship magazine at the time.
April 9th, 2010
Following
dramatic scenes in the capital Bishek in the last few days,
Roza Otunbayeva, the leader of
Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democratic Party said today that a coalition of
opposition parties have seized control of the country’s security headquarters, state television and various government buildings. Otunbayeva called on President Kurmanbek Bakiyev — who fled the capital on Wednesday night — to resign and said she would lead an interim government until elections are called. In a press conference on Thursday morning, she claimed that the opposition’s actions were in response to the government’s attacks on freedom: “what we did yesterday was our answer to the repression and tyranny against the people by the Bakiyev regime. You can call this revolution. You can call this a people’s revolt. Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy.” Since he took office in 2005, Bakiyev
has cracked down on opposition parties and the independent media.
April 7th, 2010
Large-scale
riots have broken out in Bishkek, the capital of
Kyrgyzstan, over what human rights groups claim are increasingly repressive policies of the president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. One
government minister has been killed, and the
deputy prime minister has been taken hostage in a series of protests which started when a group of protestors
stormed government offices in the town of of Talas on Tuesday. Since he took office in 2005, Bakiyev has cracked down on opposition parties and the independent media. Last Wednesday, a court suspended the newspaper
Forum, on the basis that an article contained “appeals to forcibly overthrow the constitutional order”. On Thursday, financial police raided the Bishkek headquarters of the independent Web-based television outlet Stan TV, confiscating all computer equipment. The
clampdown follows suspensions of two other newspapers Achyk Sayasat and Nazar on 18 March. All thee had reported on a March opposition convention, at which representatives demanded President Bakiyev dismiss his relatives from government positions, and that the government lower electricity and heating costs.
December 22nd, 2009
A Kyrgyz opposition journalist, Gennady Pavlyuk has died in Kazakhstan today, nearly a week after he was thrown out of sixth-floor window with his hands and feet bound. He had been in a coma since the 16 December incident and died without regaining consciousness. Pavlyuk was a leading critic of Kyrgyzstan’s President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and officials in both countries said a criminal investigation had been opened. Kyrgyzstan has repeatedly come under attack for human rights violations after a series of deaths or beatings of opposition journalists in the country. Read more
hereJuly 20th, 2009
Officials in Kyrgyzstan have claimed at a news conference that a local police officer has admitted to inflicting the injuries on freelance journalist Almazbek Tashiyev that resulted in his death last week. They claim the policeman knew Tashiyev well and the row was personal and now consider the case to be closed. Upon admission to hospital Tashiyev, and his brother who also witnessed the incident said he had been assaulted by “about 10 policemen”. Read more
hereJuly 14th, 2009
Almazbek Tashiyev, a freelance reporter who wrote for the Bishkek-based opposition weekly Agym in Kyrgyzstan has died in hospital from injuries he recieved eight days before. Upon his admission to hospital he said he had been assaulted by “about 10 policemen” and his brother who witnessed the assault has also stated this to be true. Read more
hereMay 11th, 2009
Yrysbek Omurzakov, the chief editor of an independent newspaper in Kyrgyzstan, Tribuna, has been assualted by three men who mentioned his paper’s journalistic output. Read more
hereNovember 25th, 2008
Kyrgyzstanʼs Deputy Interior Minister has said the murder of
Alisher Saipov in October last year had no link to his journalistic activity.
(more…)
