Journalist and press freedom defender stabbed in Kazakhstan
New York, May 15, 2017–Kazakh authorities should swiftly and thoroughly investigate yesterday’s stabbing of journalist and press freedom defender Ramazan Yesergepov and should bring all those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesergepov, who spent three years in prison for his work as an editor and who now runs the press…
Imprisoned Kazakh journalist goes on hunger strike
New York, July 8, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the well-being of Ramazan Yesergepov, the ailing imprisoned editor of the now-defunct independent newspaper Alma-Ata Info, who is on a hunger strike for the third consecutive day in a penal colony in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz.
Denied access, CPJ manages to interview Kazakh prisoner
On June 3, I took a six-hour-long drive from Almaty to Taraz with local press freedom advocate Rozlana Taukina and two family members of imprisoned editor Ramazan Yesergepov to visit him. Yesergepov has been a long-term case for CPJ. In November 2008, he published two internal Kazakh security service (KNB) memos in his now-defunct newspaper, Alma-Ata Info, which…
CPJ asks Obama to raise poor press record with Kazakhstan
Dear President Obama: In advance of your April 12 meeting in Washington with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, we’d like to draw your attention to the deteriorating press freedom conditions in Kazakhstan. Unchecked violence and the arrest of independent reporters, politicized prosecution and harassment of critical outlets, and draconian media and Internet regulation laws tarnish the record of the current chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Attacks on the Press 2009: Kazakhstan
Top Developments• Repressive media law takes effect, sets limits online.• Politicized lawsuits threaten independent newspapers. Key Statistic 2010: Year that Kazakhstan assumes chairmanship of OSCE. The authoritarian government of this central Asian nation brazenly defied international standards for freedom of expression even as it prepared to assume chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in…
Kazakhstan must stop trial of press defenders
We issued the following statement after receiving reports today that a trial of three press freedom activists, who organized a protest on Wednesday against the jailing of journalists in Kazakhstan, has started in Almaty; the three are charged with violating a law on holding rallies…
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.
Security agents seize hospitalized editor
New York, January 7, 2009–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.