The recently created Media Council of Kyrgyzstan issued an appeal to President Akaev and the country\'s journalists on 6 November, focusing on the charge of criminal libel as one of the main hindrances to journalistic activity in Kyrgyzstan. The appeal stated that this conclusion is the result of a poll of journalists taken as the council\'s first action after its creation, and asked the president to try again to persuade the parliament to drop imprisonment as a punishment for libel and to introduce a fee for filing lawsuits against the media. Akaev has already tried twice to persuade the legislature to decriminalize libel. Government officials and others have frequently used the charge to silence critical media and journalists by bankrupting them with huge fines. The independent Kyrgyz media has been suspicious of the Media Council because it was created under government auspices.(akipress.org)