If he was alive, today, Alisher Saipov, a murdered ethnic Uzbek journalist from southern Kyrgyzstan, would celebrate his 27th birthday. Personalities like Alisher, who gave their lives in struggle for freedom, are real examples for others not to give up in this not-easy fight against forces that hinder human development! Alisher, the fact that the Kyrgyz government failed in searches for guilty does not mean that society does not know those who are behind your murder!

Alisher Saipov, a prominent journalist from Osh city, was shot dead on October 24, 2007. Reportedly, Saipov was shot three times by unknown person in black. One of the bullets hit Saipov’s head, which resulted in his death. About a month before Alisher’s death, the Uzbek TV channels broadcast a prime-time program condemning Alisher for being ‘an ally of shady forces that want to destabilize the peaceful situation in Uzbekistan’.

Alisher Saipov was one of few journalists, who criticized the Uzbek government based on real facts, as he was working in the fields on grassroots level, not like many other somewhere in the West disseminating unchecked and often biased information.