KAZAKSTAN

Country Summary

President Nursultan Nazarbayev moved to increase his control over the media, most likely in anticipation of the presidential elections scheduled for the year 2000. In January, Nazarbayev decreed a reorganization of the National Agency for Press and Mass Media, according to which only he can appoint or dismiss the agency’s chairman. Journalists viewed the move as consolidating presidential leverage over state-subsidized media.

Journalists continued to suffer detention, harassment, and even imprisonment for their work, while lawsuits and bureaucratic obstacles pressured independent newspapers and broadcasters. Some attacks on the press reflected the Kazak government’s increasing concern with the presence of a large and vocal Russian population. Several Russian correspondents based in Almaty, such as Izvestiya’s Vladimir Ardayev, were threatened with the loss of accreditation when their coverage appeared to challenge the Nazarbayev government.

In some cases, reporters fought back and upheld their freedoms. Komsomolskaya Pravda was threatened with criminal prosecution and closure for carrying a controversial piece by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But after campaigns by domestic and international press freedom advocates, including CPJ, authorities opted for a lighter penalty, requiring the newspaper to print an expression of regret. In another case, Batyrkhan Darinbet of Radio Liberty’s Kazakstani Service, detained by police July 5 while attempting to cover an unauthorized anti-nuclear demonstration, sued the government for wrongful arrest and was awarded damages, although the government was not required to pay the damages.

Five independent radio and television stations­all of whom rent transmitters from the government­were informed Nov. 9 in writing that they were “interfering with air traffic communications” and that they would need special clearance to enter their studios. All the stations were intermittently shut down. In December, the Association of Independent Electronic Mass Media of Central Asia reported that law-enforcement officials in several provincial cities had conducted hostile inspections of television and radio companies, all of which are members of the association.

Meanwhile, the president’s daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, received her own semi-privatized television station, Khabar, whose programming does not present a challenge to the government. Nazarbayeva was also instrumental in registering another “independent” channel, NTK, whose founders include high government officials. In December, the government announced a public tender of broadcast frequencies (including those already leased) at prices far out of the range of any truly independent company’s ability to pay. The alternative media feared that only groups close to the government would gain control of the frequencies, since only such companies would have access to the necessary funds for licenses, at least US$30,000 for an investment in an FM radio frequency and US$64,000 for a VHF television frequency, plus annual fees of at least US$12,000.

For more information contact europeweb@cpj.org