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Gulnura Toralieva, IPP Program Director: Dear participants, today's event is dedicated to memory of the well-known Kyrgyz journalist, our colleague Alisher Saipov, who was shot recently in Osh. This cruel murder of a young and talented man has shocked not only the people of Kyrgyzstan, but the whole world. May I ask you all to stand in memory of Alisher Saipov. Thank you. I would now like to give the floor to those who knew Alisher Saipov personally.

Aziza Abdirasulova, Director of the Public Foundation "Kylym Shamy": I met Alisher Saipov for the first time in 2002 during the events in Aksy. He was in Aksy day and night. Back then Saipov worked at "Fegana.ru" and radio "Liberty", he was informing the whole world about the real situation on the ground. Journalists from the pro-governmental mass media had problems approaching people of Aksy, but Alisher worked closely with local people. From that time onward we had close relations with Alisher Saipov.

As you know, our organization regularly visits different regions of the country, whenever we visited Osh oblast, we would meet with Alisher. It always surprised us that he could find time to participate in events, round-tables, and write about them. He was always and active participant had very interesting questions.

Leila Saralaeva, "Associated Press" correspondent: Dictators always remove those who are nation's conscience, who understand people more than others, who see the core of the matter and are able to articulate it. Alisher Saipov was exactly such a person. Despite his young age, he had a strong civic position, national pride, a sense of responsibility, and an awareness that if he did not speak, then no one would tell the truth to people. He had been successfully carrying this burden. He was more than a professional journalist. He was Citizen in the fullest sense, and such people make history. Those who are present here today have no doubt about who was interested in his death. There are many victims on the dictator Karimov's conscience, and each victim is a tragedy. However, the death of Alisher Saipov is a real shock, as he was killed in Kyrgyzstan. He was killed in a country which was, not that long ago, was seen as an island of democracy. Even though it is hard to come to terms with, it is unlikely that our authorities will find those who ordered his death. There are plenty of reasons, and one of them is a fear of hampering political relations with this state.

Ilim Karypbekov, Director of the Media Representative Institute: The price for freedom of speech for a journalist is his or her life. For others in our society, for example, for those in power, the price for freedom of speech is nothing. This is is supported by the fact that within the last year 20 journalists have been beaten and some of them have been forced to leave the country.

We, media organizations, have talked a lot about these matters and have said that it is necessary to raise the alarm earlier, to take measures and to unite.

Shamaral Maychiev, Media Representative of Kyrgyzstan: This is horrible event - the murder of a journalist. But it was predictable. The most important question today is what can be done to prevent this from happening again? And, it seems to me, we need to reduce the politicization of this issue. We need a professional approach to allow for professional security of journalists. We, media representatives, media lawyers are involved into the legal cases at courts, but there are many different procedures - within the rule of law. But safety is a completely different thing.

I think fewer than hundred people knew what would happen, including Alisher Saipov. If we rely on the state to provide for our safety, then nothing will change in terms of the protection of journalists as well as citizens. The OSCE tries to take certain measures, to have certain programs, but it is not enough. Above all, safety has to be an issue for the owners of mass media companies. We need such mechanisms that will allow journalists go to certain agencies for risk prevention. We need a preventive protection. And this mechanism is absent at the moment.

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