BISHKEK -- A court in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, ruled to annul a move by the Central Asian nation's Culture Ministry to block the Russian-language website of the independent media outlet Kloop.
Lawyer Nurbek Sydykov told RFE/RL on March 18 that if the court's decision is not appealed or if an appeal is rejected by the Bishkek City Court, the website will resume operations.
The website was blocked last September and later in November the Kyrgyz-language website for the outlet was also blocked amid a government campaign to pressure the Kloop Media Public Foundation.
The former Soviet republic's Culture Ministry said it blocked the sites after the State Committee of National Security (UKMK) claimed the media outlet distributed false information.
The claim was about a report that appeared on Kloop's website in September about jailed opposition politician Ravshan Jeenbekov and a statement he made saying that he was tortured while in custody.
The ministry demanded Kloop remove an article about the alleged torture of Jeenbekov from its site in Russian or face being blocked.
On September 12, Kloop published a statement saying it was refusing to remove the material as the story in question attributed all information about the situation faced by Jeenbekov while in custody to actual individuals and sources.
Kloop said at the time it was officially informed of the lawsuit against it and that the move was taken after an audit by the UKMK determined its "published materials are aimed at sharply criticizing the policies of the current government" and that "most of the publications are purely negative, aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal bodies."
Established in June 2007, Kloop is a Kyrgyz news website (kloop.kg) whose main contributors are students and graduates of the Kloop Media Public Foundation School of Journalism. As an independent media entity, it is known for publishing reports on corruption within various governmental bodies and providing training to Central Asian journalists in fact-checking and investigative techniques.
RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known as Radio Azattyk, Kloop, and the Center for Corruption and Organized Crime Research (OCCRP) have collaborated on a series of investigations concerning corruption in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan's civil society and free press have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia. But that has changed amid a deepening government crackdown.
Kyrgyz authorities blocked Radio Azattyk's websites in Kyrgyz and Russian in late October 2022 after it refused to take down a video, which was produced by Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America.
Officials of the Central Asian state claimed that the authors of the video "predominantly" took the position of the Tajik side of a story. RFE/RL rejected the accusation saying 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.
In July 2023, the Bishkek court annulled the decision that shut down RFE/RL's operations in Kyrgyzstan.