Major changes are afoot at one of Kyrgyzstan’s most storied media outlets.
Leadership at the 24.kg news agency insist that the rearrangements are pure business, although they come just weeks after almost a dozen editorial staff were detained for questioning by the security services.
A note indicating that 24.kg has formally changed publisher appeared on the Justice Ministry website on March 19. Founder Asel Otorbayeva, who has been at the outlet since its creation 18 years ago, has been replaced by Almasbek Turdumamunov.
Turdumamunov previously ran the Kyrgyz-language operation at 24.kg. His previous professional experience reportedly included a stint working as press officer for former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was toppled in April 2010 after his security detail killed dozens of demonstrators during protests in the capital, Bishkek. At other times, Turdumamunov has worked at the National Bank and the state telecommunications company.
Speculation about a possible change of leadership at 24.kg have intensified since mid-January, when agents with the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, mounted a raid on its offices and interrogated senior management over claims that the outlet had been “propagandizing war.” Otorbayeva was among those questioned, as were senior editors Anton Lymar and Makhinur Niyazova.
This week, Niyazova took to Facebook to announce that she was quitting from a job that she has been doing for the last five years. She refrained from providing a full explanation for her decision, but said that she was acting out of principle and from unwillingness to “tolerate repeated lies.”
“I don’t want my name to even be mentioned next to that of the people into whose hands the news agency has passed,” she wrote. “Don’t ask me any questions about the deal. I don’t know. I am not getting anything out of it.”
Otorbayeva, meanwhile, posted a statement on Facebook to deny rumors that her outlet had been taken over by elements close to the ruling regime. She said that her decision to relinquish control over 24.kg was taken a year ago for health and family reasons. The move was not political, she insisted.
“There was no raiding,” Otorbayeva wrote, using the Russian term alluding to the practice of aggressive corporate takeovers. “There has been no conversation about changing editorial policy, and I hope there will not be one either. We have never been an opposition publication. And we have never been a pro-government publication.”
While it is true that 24.kg’s reporting style has generally steered a careful line, refraining from overly polemical and aggressive coverage of national developments, it has nevertheless also not shied away from relaying news that was embarrassing to the authorities.
One recent example concerned the government’s bumbling adoption of a new national flag at the start of this year. 24.kg coverage of the inept roll-out is known to have angered officials, so much so that one staffer left the country out of fear of reprisals.
Otorbayeva said she handed the reins to Turdumamunov as she has known him for a long time as a person with solid experience of “interacting with government agencies” and working in senior management.
“We were in negotiations for a long time. Those [talks] slowed down as a result of the raids and the absurd accusations of war propaganda,” she wrote.
Otorbayeva gave no insight into the nature of those negotiations.
To make matters only more complicated, one other individual was registered as 24.kg’s publisher, if only for a few days, before Turdumamunov was eased into that position. That person was Gulzhan Sheripbayeva, the chief editor of another outlet, NazarNews. She is not known to have had any prior involvement with 24.kg.
In October, the Culture Ministry threatened, under censorship powers it acquired in 2021, to slap a block on the NazarNews website over an article criticizing the head of the government, Akylbek Japarov. NazarNews hastily pulled the offending piece, but the GKNB in November nevertheless opened a criminal investigation into Sheripbayeva on suspicion of “inciting hatred.”
It is unclear what the status of proceedings against Sheripbayeva is at this stage. In any case, her resumé made her an odd fit for 24.kg. Her social media activity points to pro-Russia sympathies, but also, historically, support for the once-powerful but now severely out-of-favor corrupt former customs chief and political kingmaker Rayimbek Matraimov. Many figures once close to Matraimov have in recent weeks vocally recanted their previous stance, apparently out of fear of legal consequences, and pivoted to support of President Sadyr Japarov.
When Sheripbayeva’s name was first linked to 24.kg, which happened on March 15, she told reporters that this was a temporary development and that the identity of the new leadership would soon become known.
While this convoluted ownership drama is playing out, 24.kg is still ostensibly facing a case under an article criminalizing the “propaganda of war.” The GKNB has not stated publicly what content they believe fell foul of this law. Niyazova speculated on the day of the raid in January that the articles in question may have been about the war in Ukraine.
Kyrgyzstan has under Japarov’s leadership stuck fast to the country’s generally pro-Russian line. While the government has refrained from explicitly endorsing the invasion of Ukraine, it has similarly avoided criticizing it and has at times taken action to discourage activists — specifically, Russian nationals living in Bishkek — from doing so either.
24.kg, which was founded in 2006 by Otorbayeva, a former editor at the Vecherniy Bishkek (Evening Bishkek) newspaper, has before now been targeted for censorship by the Russian authorities.
In September, Roskomnadzor, the Russian media watchdog that essentially enforces Kremlin directives, mandated the blocking of the site due to its reporting on the Ukraine invasion. It seems this action was triggered by reports that were considered to have an anti-Russian bias. A June article from the site included commentary from political analysts portraying Moscow as possessing "imperial ambitions" in Central Asia. A piece from April focused on the intricacies of Russian propaganda tactics.
While it is too early to tell if the change of management at 24.kg will lead to a shift in the tenor of its coverage, there is certainly a precedent for such developments in Kyrgyzstan.
