Journalist Aktilek Kaparov had just stepped out of his building for a coffee when he noticed something strange – suspicious people in masks and civilian clothing circling the perimeter, and two police officers. Minutes later, a group in tactical gear stormed out of a white van parked nearby and ran into the entrance he had just walked out of.

This was the beginning of a raid by anti-drug police in Kyrgyzstan. Their target: Temirov LIVE, a media outlet known for exposing high-level corruption. Inside, the police forced the employees to the floor, arrested their editor in chief, Bolot Temirov, and seized the outlet’s equipment.

The raid wasn’t an isolated incident — it followed months of surveillance, harassment, media attacks, and intimidation targeting the outlet and its employees.

Such experiences are common for journalists across Central Asia, as our regional editor, Slava Abramov explains in the video below.

Reporting on abuses of power often leads to threats, state-sponsored harassment, imprisonment, and exile.

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