Kazakhstan

2009

  

Kazakh police: Kyrgyz citizens suspected in editor’s killing

New York, December 29, 2009—Police in Kazakhstan said Monday that they have identified several suspects in this month’s murder of prominent Kyrgyz editor Gennady Pavlyuk. Police did not identify the suspects or describe their alleged roles, other than to say the suspects are citizens of neighboring Kyrgyzstan. In a statement today, the Kyrgyz Prosecutor General’s…

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Ferghana

Prominent Kyrgyz journalist killed in Kazakhstan

New York, December 22, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Kazakh authorities today to thoroughly investigate the apparent murder of visiting Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk. Pavlyuk, at left, who is better known by his pen name, Ibragim Rustambek, died in the hospital this morning after falling from an upper-story window of an apartment building…

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Kazakh journalist and newspaper persecuted

After receiving reports of at least three defamation lawsuits filed recently against Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a prominent journalist with the independent newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya in Western Kazakhstan, in retaliation for his critical reporting on a state construction company’s illegal work on a gas pipe project, er issued the following statement…

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Demonstrators demand the release of documentary filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, jailed in China after interviewing Tibetans. (AFP)

CPJ’s 2009 prison census: Freelance journalists under fire

New York, December 8, 2009—Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ found a total of 136 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behind bars…

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Kazakh court upholds Yesergepov sentence

We issued the following statement today after a regional court in Taraz upheld a lower court verdict and sentenced Ramazan Yesergepov, editor of the independent weekly Alma-Ata Info, to three years in jail for allegedly publishing state secrets…

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Kazakh authorities seize embattled weekly’s print run

New York, September 18, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns 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…

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Kazakh editor imprisoned for collecting state secrets

New York, August 26, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Taraz Regional Court in southern Kazakhstan to overturn on appeal a jail sentence given to Ramazan Yesergepov, the editor of the independent Almaty-based weekly Alma-Ata Info. 

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Kazakh president signs restrictive Internet law

After hearing news that President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed into law a restrictive Internet regulation bill on Saturday, we issued the following statement today…

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Restrictive draft press law in hands of Kazakh president

Dear President Nazarbayev: As an independent, nonpartisan organization defending press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to veto a severely restrictive draft Internet law, which will further curb press freedom conditions in Kazakhstan and is inconsistent with your country’s democratic aspirations.

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Nazarbayev urged to curb politically motivated lawsuits

Dear President Nazarbayev: CPJ would like to draw your attention to your government’s selective and politically motivated use of civil libel lawsuits against critical journalists and their publications. In a trend that fosters self-censorship, intolerant public officials target critical news outlets with defamation lawsuits that result in crippling damages.

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2009