Translation from www.fergana.ru
Over the past three weeks in March 2010 the authorities of Kyrgyzstan have been able to virtually destroy the independent journalism which has developed in the country since independence in 1991.
Independent newspapers are history now, the one that were once counting days left for former President Askar Akayev in office.
There used to be direct broadcasts of lengthy multi-day rallies of the opposition in the central square in Bishkek.
Journalists no longer ask bold and embarassing questions from the president or ministers, which made the press services of state departments feel creepy.
And there is no longer live broadcasts at the first Kyrgyz public television channel with the participation of opposition leaders and President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, where the president openly responded to attacks on their opponents.
The local media has given up the tradition of ‘correspondents on duty in the parliament’; a source of fresh news from parliamentary correspondents about sensational statements made by Deputies, both pro-opposition and pro-government.
Now the news coming from local TV and news feeds remind the Soviet times: news from the rural fields, battle for the harvest, the heroes of labor and sports ...
The beginning of the regime of silence
On March 10th , 2010 a new era started in the history of Kyrgyzstan. People are gradually getting used to the lack of information: even if there are important political events, the majority do not even know about them.
Over the past few days in the country three opposition newspapers were closed (Forum Newspaper, BBC Radio news, and Azattyk – the Kyrgyz Branch of Radio Liberty) blocked both local and international news agencies; local news agencies agreed to (or were forced ) not to pour light on certain political topics.
The most recent attack was made on the independent Internet television Stan TV on April 1st.
Financial police officers came to the editors of the TV Stan Channel together with a representative of Microsoft who said that the channel was using unlicensed software in their computers. Human right activists arrived to the scene and kept defense for an hour, blocking the doors of the rooms where the computers were kept and preventing the staff of the financial police from entering. Computers of the Finpol have exactly the same pirated copies of software, - said the broadcaster computer specialists and human rights activists. ‘We have never used a computer in our lives’, sneered the police. Soon, the financial police sealed the premises with computers and server equipment, and thus blocked the work of the television. Journalists were not even allowed to take their own laptops from the office.
Sadly, but at the moment of the raid journalists did not even make an attempt to resist the security officials, who were openly taunting them. It was clear that journalists were already prepared to obey. Everybody remembers how were killed Alisher Saipov and Gennady Pavluk, how Syrgak Abdyldaev was brutally beaten and stabbed.
When you know exactly how this country can treat journalists, blocking a website or sealing editorial offices seems a very light retribution for your work.
Because if compared what they could have done to you, the current problems seem to be trivial. At least, you're still alive. In Kyrgyzstan, the present-day journalists face the reality like ‘they might kill you or mutilate’, and self-censorship is stemming from it. The question of ‘what will happen to my children’ becomes crucial, and people are leaving the profession: either by an open transfer to another job, or by agreeing to censorship which is, in fact, is just another way to say good-bye to your trade. In the present day Kyrgyzstan, no free press exists any longer.
The reason for the Kyrgyz authorities to finally introduce the ‘silence mode’ was a scandal with international financier Eugene Gourevitch, whose company was managing significant public assets. The assets were transferred to Gourevitch by the Development Fund of Kyrgyzstan, managed by the President's son, Maxim Bakiyev. Messages of various news agencies that an Italian court issued arrest warrants against Gourevitch, who was in fact a personal financial advisor to the Bakiyevs family, made a signal to the presidential secretariat and security services to start blocking the Internet access to websites of Fergana.Ru, Centrasia.ru, and Internet newspaper Beliy Parus. Broadcasts of the Azattyk radio (the Kyrgyz service of Radio Liberty), which went through the private radio and television.
Earlier, authorities struggled with the opposition and journalists on a case-by-case basis, but now it seems that they decided to start a systemic pressure on political opponents and independent media.
Neighbors would understand
The construction of a rigid vertical of power and ways to deal with the opposition and media have been successfully learned by Kurmanbek Bakiev from his neighbors; and the other presidents of Central Asian countries have more than once made it clear: it is not good to be a ‘black sheep’.
While other countries of the region were closing down independent media, Kyrgyzstan continued to be a platform for regional conferences, roundtables and seminars attended by representatives of the closed countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. This could not help mitigating irritation in authoritarian regimes around the republic.
Bakiyev was well aware that a tougher policy to clear the political field would be welcomed by all leaders in the region. In any case, Kyrgyzstan without revolutions, riots and political strife is a more attractive partner than Kyrgyzstan as it was in 1991, 2005 or 2007. Finally, while Karimov, Nazarbayev, Berdimuhamedov and Rakhmon do not even think of stepping down from power before end of their lives, Bakiev also has to think how to ensure his (or his family) life-long presence in the region's political scene.
So, why care about the reputation of the ‘island of democracy’ in the region if today Kyrgyzstan needs America just as much as America needs it? While there is a war in Afghanistan, America will pay for the Manas base, will build a training center in the south of the country and will not pay attention to such side-effects of the Kyrgyz statehood construction as the killings of journalists and politicians, fabricated criminal charges, severe prison sentences for the opposition who don’t want to come to a compromise. The U.S. and Europe have their own interests in Kyrgyzstan, and in their policies there now seems to be a period when even the most zealous Democrats only see an internal problem of another state there where violation of human rights and freedoms was seen before…
|
Bishkek journalist and political commentator Syrgak Abdyldaev after an attack. March 2009. Even before the complete recovery, Syrgak was forced to flee from Kyrgyzstan under pressure of the authorities. |
|
|
|
last viewed articles
