Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009europe and central asia: kyrgyzstanpenalties that include closing of media outlets and imprisonment of up to fiveyears for journalists.Using extremism legislation, prosecutors persuaded a court to shutter the independentArt-TV in the northern city of Karaganda in connection with a viewertext message. “Kazakhs, unite, let’s beat Russians” was among viewer messages displayedin scrolling text on a March 21 program. Art-TV, which deleted the messageafter it was shown once, said a technician’s oversight had allowed the words toappear. Ruslan Nikonovich, Art-TV director, said the prosecution was in retaliationfor the station’s decision to challenge distribution of government funding toregional broadcasters.A prominent Kyrgyz journalist, Gennady Pavlyuk, died in late December afterplummeting from the upper-story window of an apartment building in Almaty.His hands and legs had been bound with tape, according to news reports. Pavlyuk,40, had been editor of the Kyrgyz newspaper Bely Parokhod and was said to beconsidering the launch of a pro-opposition, online publication. He had traveledto Kazakhstan on business, according to news reports, but the precise reason wasnot immediately clear. CPJ was investigating to determine whether the killing waswork-related.KYRGYZSTANThe press climate deteriorated in this mountainous central asiannation that once offered promise for democracy and free expression. The government’serratic investigation into the unsolved 2007 murder of editor AlisherSaipov stained the nation’s law enforcement and press freedom record. At leastfour critical reporters were brutally attacked, and one fled the country in the faceof continuing threats. An independent Russian-language newspaper closed afterits staffers received anonymous threats.President Kurmanbek Bakiyev won his second term in a vote that was harshlycriticized by domestic and international observers. The July 23 election fellshort of democratic standards, according to the Organization for Security andCo-operation in Europe (OSCE), which cited ballot-stuffing, intimidation of oppositionsupporters, coercion of government employees, and biased media coverage.OSCE monitors said state-controlled news media produced inequitable coverage,devoting more time and space to Bakiyev than to his challengers. Bakiyevalso enjoyed largely positive coverage, the OSCE found, in contrast to the criticalreporting devoted to his opponents.The Elections Commission declared Bakiyev the winner, with 76 percentof the vote, over former Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev and four othert o p developments»»Saipov murder case unsolved and besetby questions.»»Four journalists badly beaten; noarrests made.key statistic7 6Percentage of vote won byKurmanbek Bakiyev in flawedpresidential election.candidates, according to local and international press reports. Atambayev and hisbackers said the government had rigged the vote, and they refused to recognizethe results, according to Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz Service of the U.S. government-fundedRadio Free Europe/Free Liberty.Although media are diverseby regional standards,most residents get newsfrom the state-controlledbroadcaster National Televisionand Radio Corporation(KTR), CPJ research shows.Legislation passed in 2008gave Bakiyev broad authorityover KTR policy-making, allowinghim to appoint KTR’sgeneral director and all membersof its supervisory board.The OSCE estimated thatabout 400 newspapers are published regularly, most of them in regional centersand the capital. Although the government does not directly control independentnewspaper content, self-censorship is pervasive due to the impunitythat is common in attacks on the press, CPJ research shows. Most internationalestimates have put Internet penetration in the single digits, althoughthe Bishkek-based nonprofit, the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy, announcedin September that penetration had reached about 14 percent. Parliament hasdiscussed an Internet regulation bill, but no legislation has advanced.Seen as an ally of press freedom when he took power in 2005 after a popularuprising, Bakiyev continued to offer encouraging statements about the role ofnews media. He told journalists at a February press conference in Bishkek thatthey are the country’s “fourth estate” and that his administration took seriouslycritiques in the press, the independent news agency 24.kg reported. “Nobody isrepressing you, and you say what you want,” Bakiyev said.But his assertions were undercut throughout the year by attacks and intimidationaimed at critical and pro-opposition reporters and carried out with impunity.On March 3, four unidentified assailants beat and stabbed Syrgak Abdyldayev,a political reporter and commentator for the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek,outside his office in Bishkek. Assailants broke both arms and a leg,and stabbed him more than a dozen times, Abdyldayev told CPJ. The reporterhad criticized the government’s economic policies and had examined the disappearanceof opposition politicians. Although Interior Ministry officials said an182183