Kazakhstan

2012

  

Journalist, press club founder disappears in Kazakhstan

New York, December 27, 2012–Kazakh authorities must do their utmost to determine the whereabouts and ensure the safety of journalist Tokbergen Abiyev, who has been missing since December 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Read More ›

Kazakhstan must halt crackdown on independent press

Dear President Nazarbayev: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the ongoing crackdown against dozens of news outlets that appears aimed at driving national independent and opposition media in Kazakhstan into extinction.

Read More ›

Kazakh court bans broadcaster, suspends news website

New York, December 6, 2012–A court in Kazakhstan has banned an independent news outlet on charges of extremism, a ruling that comes within weeks of the country’s election to the U.N. Human Rights Council, according to news reports. Dozens of other independent and opposition news outlets face similar charges that could result in their being…

Read More ›

In Kazakhstan, news outlets face charges of extremism

New York, November 28, 2012–The politicized prosecution of dozens of independent news outlets in Kazakhstan is at odds with the country’s commitment to press freedom and deeply stains its recent election to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ calls on Kazakh authorities to dismiss the case and allow…

Read More ›

Two journalists brutally beaten in Kazakh capital

New York, August 14, 2012–Authorities in Kazakhstan must thoroughly investigate attacks on two journalists in separate episodes in the past week and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Read More ›

Police stand guard outside a court where defendants accused of participating in December's deadly clashes in Zhanaozen are on trial in the Caspian port city of Aktau March 28. (Reuters/Vladimir Tretyakov)

Journalist as a threat to Kazakhstan’s national security

In a reply to CPJ’s protest letter regarding the politicized imprisonment of journalist Igor Vinyavsky, Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor’s Office said the prosecution wasn’t retaliatory nor related to his journalism. CPJ publicly appealed to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after his country’s security service, the KNB, raided Vinyavsky’s newsroom and apartment, confiscated reporting equipment, and imprisoned the…

Read More ›

Kazakh journalist in surgery after being shot, stabbed

New York, April 19, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s attack on a reporter in Kazakhstan and calls on authorities to immediately investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Unidentified assailants shot and stabbed Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a journalist with the independent newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya, in Uralsk, a city in western Kazakhstan, as he returned…

Read More ›

In Kazakhstan, editor released from jail

Igor Vinyavsky, editor of the independent weekly Vzglyad, was freed from a Kazakhstan prison on March 15, 2012, on the orders of an Almaty court, according to news reports. The journalist had spent two months in pretrial detention after being arrested by the KNB, Kazakhstan’s security service, news reports said.

Read More ›

Attacks on the Press in 2011: Kazakhstan

The convictions of three men in the 2009 murder in Almaty of prominent Kyrgyz journalist Gennady Pavlyuk was a bright spot in Kazakhstan’s otherwise grim press freedom record. The government had yet to reform its media laws in line with international standards, despite its promises to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or…

Read More ›

CPJ urges Kazakhstan to stop repressing media

Dear President Nazarbayev: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the ongoing crackdown by Kazakhstan’s security service, the KNB, against independent journalists. The imprisonment of Vzglyad editor Igor Vinyavsky and interrogations of independent reporters by KNB agents appear to be reprisals for critical reporting on government policies, including a December 2011 confrontation in which authorities killed civilians.

Read More ›

2012