If Mongolian journalists surrender to ongoing government pressure on their reporting, it will mean “the end of journalism in Mongolia”, prominent investigative journalist Unurtsetseg Naran has said in an opinion piece written under house arrest prior to a trial that on July 19 resulted in a near-five-prison sentence.

Unurtsetseg, editor-in-chief of news site Zarig (“To Dare”), wrote in the article published on July 24 by the Guardian, how “a contact told me the government was looking to ‘shut me up’. I did not suspect that by ‘shut up’ they meant imprison”.

Among Unurtsetseg’s well-known work are articles that have uncovered corruption scandals, showing powerful politicians embezzling money from the Development Bank of Mongolia and the use of a national fund set up to help bright Mongolians study abroad by politicians to fund their own children’s education.

Officially, Unurtsetseg was charged with contempt of court, spreading misinformation, disclosing personal information, money laundering, acquisition of state secrets and tax evasion.

She wrote: “Public and international support are my only hope. The messages I receive from Mongolians on social media keep me going. But international support has been harder to gain. I have reached out to a few organisations, but have not heard back. It is difficult for me, as I do not speak fluent English.

“My lawyers tell me my case is hopeless. They want me to reach an agreement with the government. They think that if I agree not to write about the People’s party [the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, or MPP], my charges will be dropped. But I cannot do this. I have not entertained it, not even for a moment. If I agree to give up now, it will mean the end of journalism in Mongolia.”

Reflecting on the road that led her to set up Zarig, Unurtsetseg said: “I have been a journalist in Mongolia for nearly 20 years. I started my career as the country was emerging from the democratic transformation that followed decades of state communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Corruption was endemic and there was no tradition of real journalism.

“When I was a young reporter, it was not customary for journalists to question politicians. Rather, a politician would call on a reporter and expect them to write exactly what they were told. It was news to order.

“I did not want to do that. I hoped that through my work, by asking uncomfortable questions, I could heal my country and help to build a new Mongolia, free of corruption and oligarchs.”