BISHKEK -- The Kyrgyz government has suspended access to the website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, after RFE/RL refused to take down a video of one of its news programs that reported on clashes at the border with Tajikistan.
The Kyrgyz Ministry of Information said in a statement on October 26 that Radio Azattyk's website is being blocked for two months.
"The measure was undertaken as a response to unreliable materials that appeared in the nation's information space which contradict the national interests of the Kyrgyz Republic (inaccurate information about the events of September 14-17, 2022)," the ministry said.
The ministry earlier this week said in a letter to RFE/RL that government monitoring of articles by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz-language service "has revealed that it [the video] has been biased in its coverage of the events on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, predominantly taking the position of the Tajik side."
The video in question was produced by Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
While Kyrgyzstan is known for having a vibrant and pluralistic media environment compared to its Central Asian neighbors, human rights groups have warned that the climate for free expression has deteriorated since President Sadyr Japarov first came to power in October 2020.
In response, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said that the broadcaster "takes our commitment to balanced reporting seriously" and that after a review of the content in question, "no violation of our standards" was found.
"We will not succumb to pressure to remove balanced reporting from our sites, be it from the Kremlin or the Kyrgyz government,” Fly said in a statement.
“Threatening journalists and trying to silence independent media are authoritarian tactics that only serve to undermine Kyrgyz democracy," he added. "We will be appealing this decision."
A protest outside RFE/RL’s Bishkek bureau earlier this month called on authorities to close the service and other independent local outlets.
"These actions are the latest in a series emblematic of a deteriorating media climate in the country," the RFE/RL statement said.
Dozens died on both sides in the latest clashes at a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border in mid-September. The two former Soviet republics have blamed each other for the escalation of tension that led to the loss of life.
Border issues in Central Asia stem to a large extent from the Soviet era, when Moscow tried to divide the region between ethnic groups whose settlements were often located amid those of other ethnicities.
For the last decade or more, violent outbursts between ethnic Kyrgyz and Tajik communities in the area close to Tajikistan's Vorukh exclave have become common, with interventions by gun-wielding border troops a notable trend in the last few years.
Other areas of the border have also raised concerns, with a recent backlash erupting in the country over a demarcation deal with Uzbekistan. According to the deal, Kyrgyzstan will hand over the territory of the Kempir-Abad water reservoir, covering 4,485 hectares, to Uzbekistan in exchange for over 19,000 hectares elsewhere.
Some 20 politicians and activists were detained on October 23 over their opposition to the draft agreement and subsequently sent by a court to pretrial detention for two months for allegedly planning riots over the deal.
On October 24, hundreds rallied in Bishkek demanding the detained activists and politicians be released and urging the government to revise the border demarcation deal. Similar protests were held in the country’s second-largest city, Osh.