Affiliated media: School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia , NGO focusing on peace research, advocacy, and training on media issues

Incident date: November 23, 2021

Attack type:

• Illegal impediments to journalistic activity, denial of access to information

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia

Location: Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek

Additional information:

The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic issued a directive banning the coverage of election-related research in the offline and online media from November 23, 2021. This information appeared on the Commission website two days before the «ban date». This sudden ban closed access to important information contained in the second interim report on documenting, monitoring hate speech and freedom of expression in electoral discourse in Kyrgyzstan. According to the School of Peacemaking's publication schedule, it was on November 23 when the results of the second phase of the media monitoring (the previous one was published on October 23, 2021), as well as recommendations for media, authorities, political parties and candidates, were about to be published and shared on web resources.