Affiliated media: Kloop Media, Online media

Incident date: February 9, 2024

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: factcheck.kz

Location: Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek

Additional information:

On February 9, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Bishkek ruled to liquidate Public Foundation Kloop Media, one of the legal entities of the media outlet Kloop. The court found that the «providing youth and other representatives of civil society with an information platform for free expression of their opinions on social and political, economic processes» specified in the statute does not allow the organisation to operate as a media outlet. The second reason, which the court focused on, is that Kloop does not show «civic responsibility» and because of this, the country has «a growing population of people with mental disorders». Expert psychologist Terekhova, who spoke at the trial, said that one person allegedly «suffered an aggravation of his mental disorder because of Kloop’s publications and ’read the news and started sending calls to overthrow the government on messengers’». Other experts said that due to KloopMedia articles «internal migration is growing».