By Aigerim Turgunbaeva
BISHKEK (Reuters) -National security authorities in Kyrgyzstan have detained eight current and former employees of independent media outlet Kloop, their lawyers said, accusing them of inciting unrest amid a growing crackdown on media in the Central Asian country.
Five journalists from Kloop – known for its anti-corruption reporting – were arrested on Wednesday after authorities raided their homes and seized their electronic devices, lawyers for the people said. A further three people were arrested on Thursday.
They face charges of calling for mass unrest and disobeying government officials, which can incur up to 10 years in prison.
Daiyrbek Orunbekov, the head of the presidential administration, wrote on social media that the media workers had “spread false information” and had published material “directed against the state”.
A spokesman for the national security body declined comment.
Rinat Tukhvatshin, a co-founder of Kloop, said the government’s claims were fabricated.
Syinat Sultanalieva, a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, condemned the detentions as “yet another example of the Kyrgyzstani authorities’ continued crackdown on freedom of speech and expression”.
Several of the people were released after hours of interrogation, while some are still in custody with no access to their lawyers.
Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, has historically enjoyed greater media freedom than its Central Asian neighbours.
However, under President Sadyr Japarov, who came to power in 2020, the government enacted a law prohibiting media and individuals from “discrediting” the authorities, providing a tool to suppress dissent.
Kloop, an independent outlet founded in 2007, was forced to shutter last year after state prosecutors filed a lawsuit arguing that its NGO publisher, Kloop Media, was not properly registered as a media organisation.
(Reporting by Aigerim Turgunbaeva; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Gareth Jones)
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