Kyrgyzstan’s president has backed Elon Musk’s call to close Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the country’s most popular media outlet which is regularly targeted by authoritarian leaders.
New US President Donald Trump and Musk, a close advisor, are drastically cutting US overseas aid, including support for civil society, independent media and democracy promotion initiatives.
Musk on Sunday called for RFE/RL — founded during the Cold War to transmit independent information behind the Iron Curtain — to be shuttered.
The outlet, which reports on 23 countries in 27 languages, is a popular target for authoritarian regimes seeking to restrict independent journalism.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said he supported Musk’s call to close the operation, including the Kyrgyz service named Radio Azattyk.
“They want to stop the senseless waste of American money. And they’re doing absolutely the right thing,” he told the Kabar state news agency in an interview published late Monday.
“People do not need Azattyk,” Japarov said.
He accused the outlet of disseminating “distorted” and “false” information and said its mission was “obsolete” in the internet age.
Azattyk is the country’s most popular outlet — with around 2.3 million followers on YouTube and 2.5 million on Instagram.
Kyrgyzstan has a population of around seven million people.
Bishkek previously tried to ban the outlet in 2022 and 2023.
Russia has declared RFE/RL an “undesirable organisation”, making its operations in the country illegal and banning Russian citizens from cooperating with it.
Kyrgyzstan had long been the most open of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian states, with relative media and political pluralism.
But rights groups have pointed to growing government pressure on the media and NGOs, with the arrest of journalists and activists.
Kyrgyzstan “is now experiencing an upsurge in pressure on the media,” the Reporters Without Borders press freedom group says on its website.
Bishkek relies on other forms of US humanitarian support to fund education, health and agriculture projects across the impoverished country.
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