{"id":1137424,"date":"2023-07-12T18:23:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T18:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpj.org\/?p=299371"},"modified":"2023-07-12T18:23:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T18:23:50","slug":"cpj-calls-on-kyrgyzstan-authorities-to-allow-rfe-rls-radio-azattyk-to-work-freely-after-shutdown-reversal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/12\/cpj-calls-on-kyrgyzstan-authorities-to-allow-rfe-rls-radio-azattyk-to-work-freely-after-shutdown-reversal\/","title":{"rendered":"CPJ calls on Kyrgyzstan authorities to allow RFE\/RL\u2019s Radio Azattyk to work freely after shutdown reversal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stockholm, July 12, 2023\u2014 The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is relieved by Wednesday\u2019s decision<\/a> by a Kyrgyzstan appeals court to annul a lower court ruling ordering the closure<\/a> of Radio Azattyk, the local service of U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are relieved by the reversal of Kyrgyz authorities\u2019 decision to shutter Radio Azattyk, but they should never have tried to close it in the first place,\u201d said Gulnoza Said, CPJ\u2019s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in London. \u201cKyrgyz authorities must allow Radio Azattyk to work freely and stop putting pressure on it and other media outlets over content they dislike or don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Azattyk appealed an April 27 district court decision to shutter<\/a> the broadcaster for publishing a September 2022 video report about border clashes<\/a> with neighboring Tajikistan. In October, Kyrgyz authorities blocked<\/a> Radio Azattyk\u2019s websites over the video and ordered a freeze<\/a> on the outlet\u2019s bank account under money laundering laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, the court confirmed a settlement<\/a> between the broadcaster\u2019s parent company Azattyk Media and Kyrgyzstan\u2019s Ministry of Culture, Information, Sport, and Youth Policy. According to the ministry,<\/a> that settlement resulted in the removal<\/a> of the video from the outlet\u2019s websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ministry announced it would end the block on Radio Azattyk\u2019s websites, and a spokesperson for the Kyrgyzstan President said<\/a> \u201crestrictions\u201d on Azattyk Media would be lifted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffrey Gedmin, acting president of Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, said<\/a> that the decision \u2014 \u201ca result of concerted advocacy and support from the international community\u201d \u2014 would enable Radio Azattyk \u201cto continue to reach its audiences with trusted reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stockholm, July 12, 2023\u2014 The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is relieved by Wednesday\u2019s decision by a Kyrgyzstan appeals court to annul a lower court ruling ordering the closure of Radio Azattyk, the local service of U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty. \u201cWe are relieved by the reversal of Kyrgyz authorities\u2019 decision to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5097,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33345,42961,42771,45317,65597,43430,7904,22127,30513,45046,42620,65598,523,337,2283,25077,9773,42642,785,65596,24536,46615,65599,3839,30367,27150,1948],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1137424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137425,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137424\/revisions\/1137425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1137424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1137424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1137424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}