Widening the Reach of Independent Journalism in Kyrgyzstan
by Sam Breazeale, Russian Outreach
Respond’s Russian Team has collaborated with Kyrgyzstani investigative news outlet Kloop Media to create an English language version of Kloop’s site. In addition to making many of Kloop’s articles accessible to English-speaking readers, the partnership has also enabled Kloop to apply for international journalism awards like the Sigma Awards, a prestigious award for data journalism that Kloop journalists won in 2021 for their report on femicide in Kyrgyzstan.
“We at Kloop have long been thinking about translating our longest articles about Kyrgyzstan into English,” said Anna Kapushenko, Kloop’s editor-in-chief. “We would like it to be easier for people abroad who have an interest in the country to understand what’s happening in Kyrgyzstan. Respond’s volunteers are now helping Kloop to launch a full English version, as well as to build a campaign to promote our materials in English. I am confident that our combined efforts will bring independent Kyrgyz journalism to a new international level.”
Respond’s partnership with Kloop comes at a critical time for press freedom in Kyrgyzstan. After disputed elections in October 2020 led to violent unrest, Kloop journalists were attacked by protesters and threatened by supporters of populist politician Sadyr Japarov. In January 2021, Japarov was elected president of Kyrgyzstan, and in April, a referendum was held to amend the constitution in favor of strengthening the presidency. An alarming early draft of the constitution required journalists to “promote a positive image of the country internationally.” That language was eventually removed, but in August, Japarov signed a vaguely-worded bill outlawing online “fake news” that many fear is an attempt to restrict independent journalism.
Kloop, which is widely regarded as one of the most popular news outlets in Kyrgyzstan, was founded in 2007 by Bektour Iskender and Rinat Tuhvatshin in response to what they saw as the country’s lack of quality independent news sources. The majority of Kloop’s reporters are trained at Kloop’s own journalism school, which seeks to provide its students with practical experience.
Like all translation work, translating for Kloop requires more than just language skills — every article represents a significant time commitment from a volunteer. “I really enjoy translating for Kloop because I can help extend the reach of their investigative journalism,” said Hallie Sala, a member of Respond’s Russian Team. “[But] one challenge I often have is lack of context -- Kloop covers a lot of diverse topics, so I often need to do a bit of research to make sure I can translate accurately.”
Russian team project manager Mila Petrova has also translated a number of articles for Kloop. “It is a real honor to be trusted with translating investigative articles for Kloop,” said Mila. “I feel like many people aren’t familiar with what happens in Kyrgyzstan simply because there is a rather large linguistic barrier —both for readers and translators. As Hallie said, it can be challenging: sometimes we need to do a little research in order to find out more information on the topic, which can even include looking up words in the Kyrgyz language. But helping to make these stories available for an English reading audience is worth it, and I’m incredibly proud of our volunteer team and their work.”
In addition to Hallie and Mila, Respond volunteers Arthur Mengozzi and Taylor Wilson have been especially active translators for Kloop. You can read their articles, and others by Respond volunteers, here.
