Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan upholds decision to shut down Kloop Media

On 16 July 2024, the Judicial Board of the Supreme Court for Civil and Economic Cases of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan upheld the decision of the Oktyabrskiy District Court of Bishkek to shut down the human rights media outlet, Kloop Media (Kloop). The Court kept the ruling confidential for a month, and Kloop Media's lawyers only learned about the decision on 22 August 2024. This decision is final and cannot be appealed, with the ruling coming into legal force immediately upon its issuance on 16 July 2024. Despite this, Kloop Media has announced its intention to continue operating and publishing media content.

Kloop Media (Kloop) is a human rights-focused media outlet in Kyrgyzstan. Founded in 2007, it gained recognition in 2010 for its prompt and transparent coverage of the April 2010 revolution in Kyrgyzstan. Kloop Media adheres to principles of independence, impartiality, honesty, and accuracy, sharing information of public significance. It has used investigative journalism to document human rights violations, focusing on issues such as corruption, armed conflicts, and abuses in various contexts.

The Supreme Court for Civil and Economic Cases of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, in its ruling to shut down the media outlet issued on 16 July 2024, declared that the prior verdicts were "well-founded" and that "there are no grounds for reversal." As the decision is final, the next step for the authorities is the liquidation of Kloop Media. The media itself has stated that it will not initiate the liquidation process itself and will wait for the authorities to take action. Kyrgyzstan's President, Sadyr Japarov, in an interview with a pro-government Kyrgyz-language media outlet, engaged in defamation against the human rights media outlet and claimed that Kloop’s investigations were "one-sided and used to circulate lies."

This decision follows a series of legal actions and governmental pressure against Kloop Media, beginning on 22 August 2023, when the Bishkek Prosecutor's Office filed a motion to shut down the outlet, alleging that Kloop Media engaged in media activities beyond the scope of the Charter of the human rights organization. This was accompanied by a decision from Kyrgyzstani authorities to block access to Kloop Media’s website in both Kyrgyz and Russian. Additionally, in 2023, forensic linguistic and political science reviews were commissioned by the authorities. As a result, Kloop Media was accused of negatively influencing public opinion on Kyrgyzstan’s relations with Russia and forming a negative impression of state authorities. Experts also asserted in their so-called "psychiatric" review—without providing statistical evidence—that Kloop Media fails in its civic responsibility, as its publications allegedly contribute to the rising number of people with mental health issues and drive migration from the Batken Region. Furthermore, experts argued that Kloop's criticism of state authorities in its articles reportedly incites panic and exacerbates "the increase of psychiatric disorders."

On February 9, 2024, Oktyabr’ District Court ruled to shut down Kloop Media. On 22 August 2023, the Prosecutor's Office of the city of Bishkek filed a motion to shut down the human rights media outlet Kloop Media (Kloop) in the Oktyabrskiy and Pervomaiskiy district courts of Bishkek. The main reason cited by the Prosecutor’s office to shut down the organization is that Kloop allegedly carried out activities, specifically media activities, that go beyond the scope of the charter of the human rights organization. Kloop Media will appeal this decision in Bishkek City Court.

Kloop Media (Kloop) is a human rights media outlet in Kyrgyzstan. It was founded in 2007 and gained recognition in 2010 for its prompt and transparent coverage of the April 2010 revolution in Kyrgyzstan. Kloop strives to adhere to the principles of independence, impartiality, honesty, and accuracy while sharing information that holds significance to the public. It has used investigative journalism to document human rights violations, focusing on topics that include corruption, armed conflicts, and violations in such contexts.

In 2023, the authorities commissioned a forensic linguistic review and a forensic review from the perspective of political science of Kloop’s content. The motion cites excerpts from these forensic reviews that accuse Kloop, among many things, of convincing the population to negatively assess Kyrgyzstan’s relations with Russia and form a negative impression of the actions of the state authorities. During both hearings on February 5 and February 9, the Court heard authors of expert reviews, whose reviews became the basis of the Prosecutor's Office’s claim to shut down Kloop Media. During the February 5 hearing the author of the expert review that was specifically cited in the initial Prosecutor’s claim, confirmed that the review has no grounds and needs to be redone. They confessed that they just signed the review, but never authored it, and thus can’t respond to the questions of the defense attorney.

Another major issue highlighted by the Kloop Media attorneys about the expert reviews concerns the fact that the body of texts that they’ve analyzed was comprised of the official publications of Kloop, and from the personal publication of Kloop’s ex-founder Bektour Iskander, who resigned from the media outlet in November 2023.

All seven experts, who have provided a so-called “psychiatric” review of Kloop’s publications continued to argue that Kloop fails their civic responsibility as their publications impact the growing amount of people with mental health issues and provoke migration of people from Batken Region. One of the experts on the stand argued that the fact that Kloop in their articles criticizes the state authorities provokes panic and “augmentation of psychiatric diseases;” the expert at the same time failed to provide any statistical data to support this claim. Another expert claimed that Kloop “deliberately invaded the consciousness of literally every citizen of Kyrgyzstan;” however, couldn’t confirm if Kloop was able to invade their consciousness, too. None of the experts provided any statistical data or any data to confirm their claims; despite this during the deliberations, the Prosecutor continued to claim that all the experts had given “clear responses to all the questions.”

During the hearing on February 9, 2024, the representative of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, continued to state that Kloop Media is registered as a foundation, not as a media outlet, and thus can’t produce media content. At the same time, Kloop Media re-registered and changed the statute of the foundation, that allows human rights defenders to register a media outlet. Kloop Media attorneys of February 5 argued that the Prosecutor's Office’s lawsuit should be dropped, as the violation itself – inconsistency of the Kloop Media foundation’s statute and its activities – was eliminated. On February 9, the Prosecutor filed a motion to prohibit any further activities considering the re-registering of Kloop Media; the Court partially fulfilled the motion.

Front Line Defenders condemns the decision to shut down Kloop Media, as it believes that the media outlet is being targeted for its peaceful and legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders remains concerned about the scope of threats against human rights defenders and journalists in Kyrgyzstan and argues that in the context of repressive legislative initiatives concerning the work of media and NGOs, the targeting of Kloop fits into the recent pattern of systemic limiting of rights and freedoms of human rights defenders.

On 22 August 2023, the Prosecutor's Office of the city of Bishkek filed a motion to shut down the human rights media outlet Kloop Media (Kloop) in the Oktyabrskiy and Pervomaiskiy district courts of Bishkek. The main reason cited by the Prosecutor’s office to shut down the organisation is that Kloop allegedly carried out activities, specifically media activities, that go beyond the scope of the charter of the human rights organisation.

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Kloop Media (Kloop) is a human rights media outlet in Kyrgyzstan. It was founded in 2007 and gained recognition in 2010 for its prompt and transparent coverage of the April 2010 revolution in Kyrgyzstan. Kloop strives to adhere to the principles of independence, impartiality, honesty and accuracy while sharing information that holds significance to the public. It has used investigative journalism to document human rights violations, focusing on topics that include corruption, armed conflicts and violations in such contexts.

On 22 August 2023, the Prosecutor's Office of the city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, filed a motion to shut down the human rights media outlet Kloop Media, in principle, because “media activities” are not included as a listed activity in the charter of the organisation. However, the motion itself focuses not on the content of Kloop’s charter, but on the fact that Kloop’s journalistic work offers a critique of the Kyrgyzstani authorities and state politics. The motion primarily states that the human rights organisation, through its independent journalistic work, aims to discredit Kyrgyzstani national and municipal authorities with sharp criticism of the state’s policy. Kloop’s publications are described as manipulative of public opinion, causing harm and inciting hatred. News pieces published by Klopp are said to cause feelings of fear, anxiety, hopelessness and depression, that eventually cause psychological disorders, “aggressive criminal behaviour, sexual anomalies, addictions, suicidal inclinations and other disorders of social adaptation.”

In 2023, the authorities commissioned a forensic linguistic review and a forensic review from the perspective of political science of Kloop’s content. The motion cites excerpts from these forensic reviews that accuse Kloop, among many things, of convincing the population to negatively assess Kyrgyzstan’s relations with Russia and form a negative impression of the actions of the state authorities. Since 2021, the Kyrgyzstani authorities have commissioned two psycho-psychiatric forensic investigations into the human rights publications of the media outlet. The motion suggests that the Kyrgyzstani authorities have been investigating the human rights organisation’s activities since 2021, targeting the media outlet for alleged “public calls to seize power,” an offence envisioned by Article 327, part 2.1. of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Kloop themselves believe that the human rights media outlet is being targeted for their investigative piece on the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, and the head of the country’s State Committee for National Security, Tashimbek Tashyev, revealing that their family members were involved in the construction of a soccer academy in Kyrgyzstan financially related to a Spanish soccer club. After the publication of the article on 22 August 2023, Sadyr Japarov criticised the article, saying that media outlets like Kloop “bring only harm and no benefit to Kyrgyzstan.”

Front Line Defenders is gravely concerned by the motion to shut down human rights media outlet Kloop, as it believes that the media outlet is being targeted for its peaceful and legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders remains concerned about the scope of threats against human rights defenders and journalists in Kyrgyzstan, and argues that in the context of repressive legislative initiatives concerning the work of media and NGOs, the targeting of Kloop fits into the recent pattern of systemic limiting of rights and freedoms of human rights defenders.