The State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan (SCNS) will be involved in the process of blocking Kloop website as a third party. The news agency posted on X (Twitter).

According to its data, today, on January 15, preliminary hearings on the lawsuit of Kloop against the Ministry of Culture with a request to cancel the decision of the ministry on blocking the news agency’s website continued in the Administrative Court of Bishkek.

At the hearing the judge granted the request of the Ministry of Culture to involve representatives of the SCNS as a third party. The hearing will continue on January 31.

Earlier, Kloop lawyers filed two lawsuits against the Ministry of Culture. The first suit is related to the demand to cancel two decisions of the Ministry of Culture of September 7 and September 8 last year, in which the ministry demanded to remove allegedly inaccurate information from the website under the heading «Politician Ravshan Dzheenbekov said that he was tortured in the pretrial detention center 1» at the request of the SCNS.

The second lawsuit is related to the decision of the Ministry of Culture of October 9, 2023, which blocked the Russian version of the website Kloop.kg. Later it blocked the Kyrgyz-language version as well.

It was reported on August 28 that Bishkek prosecutor Emilbek Abdymanapov filed a lawsuit in court to liquidate Kloop.Media public foundation.

The lawsuit, in particular, states that «most of the publications are of a negative nature, aimed at discrediting representatives of state and municipal bodies», «Kloop.Media publications contain hidden manipulations of the opinion of the society, which are imposed negative processes that do not correspond to reality, and create opposition to any undertakings of the current government».

The prosecutor cites several headlines and materials from Kloop.kg, which, according to the oversight body, are sharply critical of the government.

The prosecutor’s office also accuses the public foundation of concealing a large amount of funds.