RFE/RL’s Jamie Fly Visits Kyrgyzstan
On a visit this week to Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly met with Kyrgyz Republic President Sadyr Japarov and Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev.
WASHINGTON – On a visit this week to Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly met with Kyrgyz Republic President Sadyr Japarov and Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, representatives of independent news outlets, media freedom advocates, and journalism students, and spent time with RFE/RL`s local journalists to discuss the important role that RFE/RL`s journalism plays in supporting Kyrgyz democracy.
During his meetings, Fly expressed appreciation for the Kyrgyz government’s support for freedom of the press and the ability of journalists to operate in the country, noting the government’s willingness to accredit journalists covering the country and the region for several services, not least its Kyrgyz Service and Current Time digital network. He met with members of civil society and other Kyrgyz news organizations and discussed with government officials recent legislation that has raised concerns about possible encroachments on press freedom in Kyrgyzstan.
While meeting with President Japarov, Fly discussed the challenging situation facing journalists across much of Central Asia and the potential for Kyrgyzstan to play an even greater role in the region. During his meeting with Foreign Minister Kazakbaev, Fly spoke about RFE/RL plans to expand existing media projects and to create new projects serving not just the Kyrgyz Republic, but other audiences in the region. Fly also visited the American University of Central Asia, where he met with journalism students.
RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, is one of the most popular multimedia sources of independent news and information in Kyrgyzstan, reporting on topics that other media ignore, including minority rights, government corruption, and radicalism and extremism issues. The Service, which won the 2019 Tom Renner Award for its groundbreaking multipart investigative report Plunder and Patronage in the Heart of Central Asia, has averaged over 4.3 million page views per month over the past 12 months on its Kyrgyz- and Russian-language website, and 9.8 million video views per month on its YouTube channel.
For more information, contact press@rferl.org.
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About RFE/RL
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.