Kazakhstan

New York, January 7, 2008--Kazakh authorities should immediately release Ramazan Yesergepov, ailing editor of the independent weekly Alma-Ata Info, who was seized from an Almaty hospital on Tuesday by government agents, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, December 30, 2008--Kazakh authorities must launch a thorough investigation into the stabbing of Artyom Miusov, a reporter with the opposition weekly Taszhargan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

CPJ research indicates that the following journalists have disappeared while doing their work. Although some of them are feared dead, no bodies have been found, and they are therefore not classified as "Killed." If a journalist disappeared after being held in government custody, CPJ classifies him or her as "Imprisoned" as a way to hold the government accountable for the journalist's fate.

In its 17 years on the air, Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy Radio has enjoyed, by Russian standards, extraordinary editorial independence. Nearly alone among Russian broadcasters in its critical approach, the station employs some of the country's most outspoken journalists, who produce in-depth reporting on the most sensitive issues of the day. But in the run-up to the March 2008 presidential election, even the unshakable Ekho has begun to feel a shudder of apprehension.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his administration played down the country’s troubling press freedom and human rights record as they successfully pursued chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Vienna-based human rights monitoring body.

New York, June 5, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on prosecutors in the Kazakh financial capital, Almaty, to rescind their decision to close the Web sites of the weekly newspaper Karavan and the online news agency Kazakhstan Today.

On Monday, the prosecutor general ordered the indefinite closure of Karavan's Web site for a May 18 article headlined "Chronicle of Events," which allegedly revealed secrets of the investigation into the kidnappings of two senior managers for the commercial bank Nurbank, according to local press reports. Authorities have not given any explanation for the closure of Kazakhstan Today's Web site.

New York, May 25, 2007—A court in the financial capital, Almaty, ordered the immediate suspension of the television station Kommerchesky Televizionny Kanal (KTK) and the weekly newspaper Karavan on Thursday for alleged violations of Kazakh media laws.

“Kazakh prosecutors are selectively using vague legal provisions to silence media outlets,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “We urge authorities to reverse the order and allow the outlets to resume work.”

New York, April 18, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply worried about the fate of investigative reporter Oralgaisha Omarshanova who has been missing since March 30. Colleagues believe Omarshanova’s disappearance is related to her journalism for the Astana-based independent weekly Zakon i Pravosudiye (Law and Justice), whose anti-corruption department she directed, local press reports said.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev strengthened his government’s control
of the news media amid a political crisis driven by the February assassination of prominent opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbayev. Ten low-level government officials and security agents were soon charged and convicted in the killing, but members of the opposition Naghyz Ak Zhol party said government involvement reached much higher. As questions swirled, the administration signaled plans to limit Internet access, and authorities arrested a critical online journalist who covered the case. The government also consolidated national television ownership and imposed new regulations on print media.

New York, January 29, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ongoing harassment of a popular newspaper in western Kazakhstan which exposed local government corruption. The independent bi-weekly Uralskaya Nedelya has been subjected to retaliation from government officials since it began a series on corruption last July, Editor-in-Chief Tamara Yeslyamova told CPJ. Three printing companies refused to print the paper after being harassed by officials, she said.