The mudslinging against the favorite in Kyrgyzstan’s upcoming presidential elections on October 30, Almazbek Atambayev, shows little sign of abating.
Kyrgyz-language newspaper Uchur reheated allegations on October 13 that Atambayev is profiting from the illegal drug trade, but not without adding some piquant and typically (for Kyrgyz-language newspapers) outrageous and unsourced allegations.
According to the Uchur report, the Russia media has turned on Atambayev and exposed his alleged involvement in the drug trade. It is not clear to which Russian publications Uchur is referring and there is little evidence of any truth in their claim. So far, it seems the slurs have only gained traction on a handful on dubious local news websites and Internet forums. (In fact, on October 10 Atambayev was received in Moscow by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which looks suspiciously like an endorsement.)
The campaign appears to be the brainchild of a group that calls itself the Association of Free Bloggers and Journalists of Kyrgyzstan, which no prominent blogger in the country has confessed to ever having heard of. The only figure identified as having any association with the group is one Bakit Djailibaev, who spends most of his time on Facebook taunting actual bloggers and posting links in favor of rival presidential candidate Tursunbai Bakir uulu, a conservative from the Ar-Namys party.
The association's latest claim, as channeled through Uchur, is that Atambayev dispatched two associates to London last October to meet with ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's son, Maxim, and asked him to hand over $100 million to fund an election campaign.
Uchur speculates whether the publication of reports on these allegations in the Russian media -- which don't actually appear to exist -- could spell trouble for Atambayev: "Does the spread of such stories not demonstrate that the Russian government is tired of the policies pursued by Atambayev in Kyrgyzstan?"
True or otherwise, these exotic accusations have an air of the thinnest of thin straws.
The long-standing proliferation of absurdly unsourced news in Kyrgyzstan looks set to continue its deeply corrosive impact on public life and politics. Regardless of how libelous an assertion is and how insignificant the author, some newspaper somewhere will see it fit to print if it suits its particular agenda.
Kyrgyzstan seems a long way from getting the balance right between a responsible media and free media.
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