Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan's parliament has approved a bill that tightens state controls over media outlets, in what critics say is a blow to press freedom in a country once seen as more open than other Central Asian nations.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov ratified a border deal Tuesday between his country and neighboring Tajikistan, resolving a longstanding dispute between the two Central Asian countries which had been a source of conflict in recent years. 

Under the deal, Kyrgyzstan will receive around 25 square kilometers (10 square miles) from Tajikistan in exchange for land and better access to shared water resources, according to the head of Kyrgyzstan’s secret service Kamchybek Tashiev. 

Officials from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have finalized a border delimitation agreement, taking the edge off what had been Central Asia’s sharpest frontier dispute. … A Kyrgyz government statement February 21 said a bilateral meeting in Bishkek resulted not only in the signing of the border pact, but also agreements covering the development of interstate road transit routes, as well as management of power generation facilities and shared water resources.

Kyrgyz government spokesman Nazirbek Borubaev said on July 30 that 94 percent of the 972-kilometer Kyrgyz-Tajik border had been agreed upon by officials from the two Central Asian nations. 

Several international rights groups on June 12 demanded the immediate release of over two dozen Kyrgyz activists who could be facing 20 years in prison for protesting a border deal with Uzbekistan. 

More than 100 nongovernmental organizations in Kyrgyzstan have urged President Sadyr Japarov not to sign into law a controversial bill modeled on Russia's repressive "foreign agent" laws that they say will negatively affect operations of NGOs in the Central Asian nation. 

The Kyrgyz parliament has approved without debate the third and final reading of a controversial bill that would allow authorities to register organizations as "foreign representatives" in a way that critics say mirrors repressive Russian legislation on "foreign agents."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has urged Kyrgyz authorities to revise a draft law on so-called "foreign representatives," saying a decision by lawmakers to move toward its adoption will pose "significant risks" to media freedom and open debate on issues of public interest in the Central Asian nation.

The European Union expressed concern on Friday about the detention of a number of journalists in Kyrgyzstan and searches at the offices of media outlets which have been critical of the government.