Kyrgyzstan shuts down prominent news outlet

BISHKEK: A court in Kyrgyzstan has ruled to dissolve a non-governmental organisation that ran a popular news website often critical of the government.

The court order late on Friday to shut down Kloop.kg follows raids on several other media outlets and arrests of their reporters, which Western governments have criticised as a crackdown on independent media.

Kloop.kg’s troubles began last August when state prosecutors filed a lawsuit to have it shut down on the grounds that Kloop Media, its NGO publisher, was not registered as a media organisation.