Kyrgyzstan: journalists of Kloop.kg reported on preventing of election coverage
The journalists of the media reported that they were prohibited from filming how the elections were held at one of the polling stations. The media reported on this fact to the Coordination Group for Rapid Response of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic.
On January 10, Kyrgyzstan had early presidential elections and the referendum to determine the form of government of the Kyrgyz Republic. According to preliminary data, a little more than 1.1 million voters or 33.13% came to vote on this day.
In total, 2,474 polling stations worked at the elections, 48 of them were abroad. Independent observers and media representatives actively followed the elections.
“At the polling station of the election commission No. 7182 in the village of Sadovoe (Chui oblast), the correspondents of Kloop.kg were not allowed to make video. They also took away their phones and deleted the videos; then they were kicked out of the polling station,” the complaint of the journalists to the Rapid Response Coordination Group reports.
In turn, according to the chairman of the polling station, Suura Karabasheva, the journalists didn’t show their documents as the employees of an accredited media.
“Nobody took their phones away. Members of the commission and observers can confirm this,” Karabasheva said.
Based on the results of the inspection carried out by the Rapid Response Coordination Group, the information about the journalists’ report was not confirmed.
It’s worth adding that during the preparation and conduct of the presidential elections and the referendum on determining the form of government, the Rapid Response Coordination Group received 50 reports of violations in total. Of these, the information was not confirmed on 10 appeals; on 14, the collected materials were sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for verification, the other cases are being considered.
