Reporters Without Borders, an international organisation based in France that defends the rights of journalists, has published a report entitled “National Security as a Weapon Against Journalism”, which includes two countries in Central Asia of particular concern – Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
As we know, nowadays, many countries and especially their governments are highly controlling the information displayed by media. From broadcasters to journalists and bloggers, they face corruption and are often charged or arrested.
As a result, because of the systematic persecutions by the Government they face, some of them are obliged to leave the country and seek asylum in another one. Indeed, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) stated that in autocratic countries, any displayed information that would go against the Government is considered to be a threat to national security. It is the case, for example, «in Kyrgyzstan, a country that is turning into a dictatorship, any information that would go contrary to the regime, headed by President Sadyr Japarov, would be considered as a threat to State stability by police authorities. As a result, many media or journalists, from Next TV to digital news platforms like Radio Azattyk to Temirov Live and Kloop have been charged with “interracial hatred” or “inciting mass riot”, while there is no real proof of such offenses.»
This issue is major as countries are controlling the media, not letting their citizens the right to think and repressing any form of freedom of expression, while in such countries, the Constitution is supposed to guarantee those rights and freedoms.
Another instance of the danger of repression towards journalists and bloggers simply using their right to express themselves would be the one of Aydos Sadykov and his wife Nataliia Sadykova. The Kazakhstanies working into the denunciation of the corrupted system, have been forced to leave their home country to seek asylum in Ukraine, in 2014. Since then, the couple worked on the same topic, but simply abroad. It was revealed that they have been looked at several times by someone. In October 2023, Kazakhstan’s authorities placed them on the wanted list, as they were charged with the criminal offense of “inciting hatred”. In the end, in June 2024, Aydos Sadykov was shot in Kyiv and died two weeks later. Despite that event, the Kazakhstan’s Government remained silent and no inquiries were opened on that case.
As a conclusion, this statement must raise awareness towards citizens, to use their right to be informed and that the situation in Central Asian countries about the freedom of expression is really deteriorating. Persecutions against journalists are still going on and still nowadays, some of them are obliged to leave the country, as their commitment to freedom of expression is seriously threatening their safety.
