At least four former and current journalists working with investigative outlet Kloop were taken in for questioning on May 28, the embattled outlet and other Kyrgyz media have reported. The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security has not commented on the matter.
On the morning of May 28, the Osh family home of 25-year-old journalist Zyyagul Bolot kyzy was searched by State Committee for National Security (SCNS or GKNB) officers. The officers confiscated her laptop and phone and took her in for questioning. Around lunchtime, the Bishkek home of Kloop cameraman Aleksandr Aleksandrov was searched and he was also taken in for questioning. A third Kloop journalist, Aidai Erkebaeva, was also reportedly detained for questioning, alongside former Kloop journalist, Zara Sydygalieva, who resigned from the outlet in 2023.
According to Kloop, its employees have been denied access to lawyers.
In February 2024, the Kloop Media public foundation was ordered to liquidate by a Bishkek court following a protracted legal battle. Kyrgyz authorities had complained that the publication “often publishes negative information that sharply criticizes the policies of the current government and is aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal enterprises.” The government sought Kloop’s closure on grounds that it technically violated its charter as a public foundation.
In an interview days before the liquidation order, Kloop co-founder Rinat Tukhvatshin told The Diplomat, “It is impossible to predict what will trigger the country’s authorities.”
Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court denied Kloop a final appeal in September 2024. Tukhvatshin vowed to continue publishing. “[A]s long as at least one Kyrgyzstani reads us, we will continue to publish the most in-depth investigations, the most balanced news, and the most incisive columns,” he said.
The outlet’s website was blocked in Kyrgyzstan in September 2023.
Kloop isn’t the only Kyrgyz media outlet to face pressure from the state. In January 2024, over the course of two days Kyrgyz authorities carried out raids on the homes and offices of more than dozen journalists in Bishkek, ultimately detaining 11 journalists associated with Temirov Live and sealing the offices of 24.kg. The detained journalists were charged, among other things, with making “calls for mass unrest.”
Of the 11 journalists charged, two received prison sentences, two probation, and seven were acquitted due to a lack of evidence in October 2024.
The proximate trigger of the recent detention for questioning of current and former Kloop journalists remains unclear as of writing, but these cases fit into a larger pattern that has emerged over the past few years of increasing pressure on media – often in the wake of reporting on elite corruption. While current Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov stands as the face of the country’s democratic decline since 2020, pressure on media is not unique to his regime.