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Aidai Irgebai, a journalist working for Kloop, a media outlet in Kyrgyzstan, made the difficult decision to move her family to Poland to escape the growing crackdown against independent journalism in Kyrgyzstan. The state shut down Kloop last year, claiming it was not properly registered, and many journalists have been forced to leave the country to continue their work.

Kyrgyzstan, once seen as a relatively free post-Soviet republic, has seen a decline in press freedom under President Sadyr Japarov and security services chief Kamchybek Tashiev. The government has passed laws targeting NGOs and media, leading to a sharp drop in the country’s press freedom ranking.

Journalists like Rinat Tuhvatshin from Kloop believe that the crackdown is a response to their investigative reporting on high-level corruption in the country. The government, however, denies any regression in democratic values and claims to support freedom of speech.

Despite the challenges, journalists in Kyrgyzstan are determined to continue their work and speak out against government repression. Dilbar Alimova, the editor-in-chief of PolitKlinika, another investigative outlet, remains hopeful that journalists will find a way to continue reporting on social and political issues in the face of government censorship and intimidation.

As the crackdown on free press continues in Kyrgyzstan, journalists like Irgebai, Tuhvatshin, and Alimova are determined to uphold the principles of journalism and fight for press freedom in a country that is facing increasing challenges to independent reporting.

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Photo credit www.aljazeera.com