Kyrgyz official structures investigating assassination of prominent journalist Alisher Saipov remain tight-lipped on the progress made so far. Themselves reticent, they insist that the young and gifted journalist's colleagues keep their ideas and hypotheses to themselves as well.

Osh Internal Affairs Department warned Mezon-TV (NTV-42) earlier today that criminal charges may be pressed against the TV channel and even its license voided. The wrath of the police was incurred by the TV program dedicated to Saipov's memory and fairly critical of the local police force and its adequacy. It seems that the police would rather deal with "nosy and troublesome" media outlets than investigate crime.

Whenever investigation is still under way, law enforcement agencies allow leaks only when they want to instill the feeling of complacency in genuine criminals or to gauge public reaction. What was leaked to the media recently could only be precisely that - an attempt to gauge public opinion and its possible reaction. Sources in law enforcement agencies (needless to say, they insisted on anonymity) told 24.kg news agency this Monday that "tentative evidence discovered so far indicates that Saipov's assassination could be arranged by radicals from the outlawed Hizb-ut-Takhrir actively promoting subversive and anticonstitutional ideas in southern regions of Kyrgyzstan."

It may only be added that Hizb-ut-Takhrir, an outlawed organization with substantial following in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan, is a convenient scapegoat to pin blame on - and doubly so when the crime is difficult or impossible to solve. The head of the Voice of Freedom and the head of the Journalists organization claim that not a single crime against journalists in Kyrgyzstan (over a dozen were logged over a fairly brief period) has been actually solved.

Saipov's colleagues demand identification and prosecution of the assassins. True assassins, that is, not the hapless ones who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Journalists appeal to Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies to do their job properly and leave no margin for error.