Saniya Toiken

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Kazakh police assault, injure journalist Saniya Toiken covering protests in Nur-Sultan

New York, October 26, 2020 – Kazakh authorities should immediately and thoroughly investigate the assault on journalist Saniya Toiken, punish the perpetrators, and ensure that members of the press can work safely in Kazakhstan. On October 24, Kazakh police officers assaulted Toiken, correspondent for Radio Azattyq, the Kazakh service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio…

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The front page of a March 20 newspaper shows President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who resigned the previous day. Kazakhstan's press was restricted and censored under his long rule. (Reuters/Pavel Mikheyev)

Nazarbayev’s long rule leaves toxic legacy for Kazakhstan’s media

In 2011, I observed an astonishing spectacle in the Respublika newspaper offices in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital. Journalists were putting a modern-day twist on samizdat, a practice in the Soviet Union whereby dissidents laboriously copied illicit material to circumvent censorship.

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A police officer in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on July 18, 2016. Journalist Saniya Toiken was recently arrested and fined after covering protests in the Kazakh city of Zhanaozen. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

Kazakhstan journalist fined after covering protests

New York, March 14, 2019 — Kazakhstan authorities should not contest journalist Saniya Toiken’s appeal of a fine imposed in response to her coverage of protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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