Security agents in Kyrgyzstan on January 15 detained Asel Otorbaeva, the director-general of the 24.kg news website, and chief editor Makhinur Niyazova after conducting a search of the independent media outlet's offices in Bishkek.

As bne IntelliNews has written, there are fears that strongman ruler Sadyr Japarov is dismantling Kyrgyzstan’s celebrated media piece by piece. The Brussels-based International Partnership for Human Rights called the detentions and search a "worrying development".

Niyazova told reporters while being placed in a police van that the searches and detentions were possibly connected to a probe into an article centred on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 24.kg's lawyer Nurbek Sadykov informed RFE/RL that there was no official information about what exactly the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) was investigating.

Later in the day, 24.kg reported the detention of another one of its editors, Anton Lymar. He, along with Otorbaeva and Niyazova, were taken to the UKMK for questioning, added the media outlet, founded in 2006 and known as one of the country's first online newspapers.

As well as targeting the media, the populist Japarov is cracking down on civil society freedoms. One example of that is how more than 20 people, including NGO leaders and other activists, are awaiting trial on charges stemming from their opposition to a controversial border agreement between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan that was struck last year.

After the raid on 24.kg, RFE/RL correspondents reported from the site that security officers confiscated computers, laptops, printers and other devices from the publication’s offices. They sealed the offices after departing the premises.

Sydykov was reported as saying that the security officers did not allow him and the website's other lawyers to be inside the offices during the searches.

Hours after the search of the offices, the UKMK said in a statement that the searches and detentions were linked to a probe on "propagating a war". No details were provided.

In September last year, 24.kg’s website was blocked in Russia in relation to the publication of four reports about the war in Ukraine that were published in October 2022. The move by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor appeared to have been prompted by coverage perceived as having an anti-Russian slant. One piece published in June quoted political analysts who described Moscow as having “imperial ambitions” toward Central Asia. Earlier in the year, in April, another 24.kg article looked at the mechanics of Russian propaganda.

Recently, 24.kg appears to have rattled officials with its coverage of the botched introduction of a modified national flag.

On January 1, an incorrect version of the new flag was hoisted on Bishkek’s main square. After 24.kg drew attention to the embarrassment, head of the presidential administration Kanybek Tumanbayev remarked that anybody spreading “false information” about the flag could face prosecution. He pointed to 24.kg as an offender.

“Not only does such false information create discontent among many people, but now our Kazakh neighbours are discussing it too,“ he wrote on Facebook. “Those who use manipulation to whip up public anger must be held accountable within the law.”