BISHKEK. Feb 3 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan's State National Security Committee said on Saturday that it had launched "incitement of interregional hostility" proceedings against a major television channel in the south of the country, Osh TV.
"Some of the content of the television channel has become the reason for criminal proceedings under Article 299 of the Criminal Code, 'Incitement of Ethnic, Racial, Religious or Interregional Hostility,'" the Committee said in a statement without elaborating.
The proceedings were launched on Wednesday, the statement said. "Due to this, the office of the company was searched yesterday under a court order," it said.
Osh TV journalists confirmed to Interfax that "one of the large and influential television channels of the south is accused of fanning interregional hostility."
"Recently officers from the State National Security Committee have been paying us frequent visits, but yesterday they carried out a careful search without letting out any of the personnel," said one of the channel's editors, Ulan Bakirov.
He said he, Osh TV chief executive Ernis Kiyazov, editor Shirin Muktarbekova and rank-and-file journalists had been interrogated at the Committee, and "now cameramen and footage editors are being summoned for giving evidence."
Kiyazov was away from his office when the latter was searched by Committee operatives, who "were mainly going through documents and contracts," journalists said. In the evening, the office that accepts advertisements was searched.
The business director said Committee operatives had turned up in the evening, "apologized for the inconvenience and searched all the documents and went through the contracts."
The operatives also "checked all the computers in the building, and even personal laptops," said Muktarbekova. "They were checking archives, and there were questions about SMS messages that Osh TV receives and shows as a crawl line."
Kiyazov expressed confidence that the main reason for the criminal action was the channel's coverage of a January 15 mayoral election in Osh.
He said Osh TV had harshly criticized some of the moves by the central government and covered opposition rallies on Osh's central square that took place late in December and in January and brought together thousands of people.
"This reminds me of the last few years of rule of [former presidents] Askar Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, when they started to persecute media and journalists that criticized the authorities," said a Kyrgyz journalist working for a leading international media company.
Local journalists also said media representatives would meet in Osh within days to consider Osh TV's plight.