Kyrgyzstan declares investigative outlets Kloop and Temirov Live ‘extremist’

New York, October 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the reversal of an October 27 court decision in Kyrgyzstan declaring the publications of investigative outlets Temirov Live and Kloop “extremist.” The same decision has designated the activity of CPJ’s 2025 International Press Freedom Award winner and Temirov Live founder Bolot Temirov, and Kloop founder Rinat Tuhvatshin, as “extremist.”

“Kyrgyzstan’s designation of international award-winning investigative outlets Kloop and Temirov Live, and their founders Bolot Temirov and Rinat Tuhvatshin, as ‘extremist’ is a shocking and desperate attempt to stifle anticorruption reporting into the top echelons of Kyrgyzstan’s government,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “This unprecedented decision shows how far Kyrgyzstan has fallen under President Japarov from its former status as a press freedom haven.”

The ruling, reviewed by CPJ, bans the outlets, as well as Temirov Live’s sister project Ait Ait Dese, from publishing online and prohibits the distribution of their work. Tuhvatshin told CPJ that this is the first time Kyrgyzstan has declared news outlets “extremist” and it is unclear how the authorities will apply the law, but that sharing and liking the outlets’ publications may now be considered support for extremist organizations and the distribution of extremist content.  

Partners of the global Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Temirov Live and Kloop regularly publish investigations into alleged corruption by senior Kyrgyz state officials, including President Japarov. Both outlets currently work from exile after becoming the main targets of Kyrgyzstan’s press freedom crackdown that has been underway since 2022.

Evidence suggests that Kyrgyz police planted drugs on Temirov during a 2022 raid on his outlet’s office and authorities deported him after effectively stripping him of Kyrgyz citizenship. In 2024, police arrested 11 of Temirov Live’s current and former staff on allegations of calling for mass unrest that have been widely denounced as baseless by groups including CPJ, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative. Temirov Live director Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, who is Temirov’s wife, remains in prison serving a six-year sentence.

Since 2023, Kyrgyz authorities have blocked Kloop’s website and ordered the outlet shuttered. Earlier this year, authorities arrested nearly a dozen of the outlet’s staff on similar charges of calling for mass unrest. Camera operators Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Joomart Duulatov are currently serving five-year prison sentences on those charges.