ARCHIVES: Kazakhstan
A court order issued on Monday banned all Kazakh media and printing houses from publishing “any information that discredits the honor and dignity” of President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, a high-ranking energy executive, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. According to the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Kazakh service, the Medeu District Court in Almaty announced Monday that an open letter about Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, published in... MORE
Three press freedom activists have been prosecuted for organising a “flash mob” in support of imprisoned journalists in Kazakhstan capital Almaty on January 6. The three activists were charged with holding an illegal demonstration when they appeared before an Almaty court on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The prosecution of Raushan Esergepova, Rozlana Taukina and Vladimir Kozlov must stop at once,” Paris-based RSF said. “Although the Kazakh government has just taken... MORE
Police in Kazakhstan said Monday that they have identified several suspects in this month’s murder of prominent Kyrgyz editor Gennady Pavlyuk, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Police did not identify the suspects or describe their alleged roles, other than to say the suspects are citizens of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. In a statement Tuesday, the Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General’s office said it had not yet received information from its Kazakh counterparts and had... MORE
Tuesday morning after falling from an upper-story window of an apartment building in Kazakhstan’s economic capital, Almaty, last week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Pavlyuk, 40, described by colleagues as one of Kyrgyzstan’s most prominent journalists, had travelled to Almaty from Bishkek on business on Wednesday; the exact purpose of the trip remains unclear. According to some local reports, Pavlyuk intended to start a pro-opposition online newspaper... MORE
A court in the southern city of Taraz has upheld independent newspaper owner and editor Ramazan Esergepov’s three-year jail term and two-year publishing ban, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sentence was confirmed at a secret hearing on October 22 which, like his original trial, was marked by irregularities. Except for the first 15 minutes, the appeal hearing was conducted behind closed doors and in Esergepov’s absence. Although Esergepov had disowned his defence attorney, the... MORE
Press freedom groups have condemned the seizure of the print run of one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Kazakhstan, which is set to take control of a leading security and human rights organization. The country will become chair of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe in 2010. On Friday last, court officers in the financial capital Almaty confiscated the entire print run of Almaty-based independent weekly Respublika-Delovoye Obozreniye , the Committee to... MORE
The Taraz Regional Court in southern Kazakhstan sentenced to jail Ramazan Yesergepov, editor of Almaty-based weekly Alma-Ata Info , the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On August 8, the court sentenced Yesergepov to three years in prison on a criminal charge of "collecting information that contains state secrets," the local press said. Rozlana Taukina, head of the Almaty-based Journalists in Danger foundation, told CPJ that Yesergepov was sentenced in the absence of a lawyer... MORE
A three-year jail sentence has been passed by a court in the southern city of Taraz passed on Ramazan Esergepov, the owner and editor of the Kazakh weekly Alma Ata Info , on charges of gathering and divulging classified documents under articles 172 and 339 of the Kazakh criminal code, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The trial, which ended on August 8 with Esergepov also being banned from publishing a newspaper for two years, had been held behind closed doors since it began on... MORE
A bill regulating online communications and content has been signed into law by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The new law gives blogs, chat rooms and other websites such as online retail outlets the same legal status as the Kazakh news media and thereby exposes them to the possibility of criminal prosecution. The bill, signed into law on July 13, will also enable the authorities to block websites that cover elections, strikes, demonstrations and ethnic issues. “This decision, which gives the... MORE
A journalist at an independent Kazakh newspaper says death threats have been rolling in since the publication of an article she wrote exposing a prostitution ring in western Kazakhstan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. [ Link ] Zhanara Davletova, a reporter for the regional Oral Weekly based in the city of Oral, told RFE/RL that she has been getting several phone calls daily from unknown people who are threatening her life. Her article includes a suggestion that a local hotel owner runs a... MORE
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