Kyrgyz civil servants obliged to speak Kyrgyz - bill

BISHKEK. May 31 (Interfax) - A bill on the state language, which imposes restrictions on civil servants who do not speak Kyrgyz, passed the third reading at a plenary meeting of the Kyrgyz parliament on Wednesday.

Sixty-nine deputies voted for the constitutional bill.

The state language bill lays down a legal basis for use of the Kyrgyz language, implementation of the language policy, and duties of state and local authorities to create conditions for their development.

The bill lists categories of persons who must be fluent in the state language at the intermediate level (B1) and be able to use this language while performing their duties. These are state and municipal employees, deputies, military personnel, judges, heads and employees of educational establishments irrespective of their form of ownership, heads and employees of state and municipal healthcare establishments, teachers, researchers, and some others.

Half of television and radio companies' content must be in Kyrgyz, and Kyrgyz versions of websites must not contain less information than versions in other languages.

By constitution, Kyrgyz is the state language in Kyrgyzstan, while Russian is an official language.