Violations of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan. January 2018

The\r\nInternational Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech Adil Soz made\r\na study of the situation with the right to freedom of expression, receipt and\r\ndissemination of information in Kazakhstan in January 2018.

It\r\nreports:

- The law \"On Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of\r\nthe Republic of Kazakhstan on Information and Communication Issues\" came\r\ninto force. Media owners note  decreased\r\nactivity of those wishing to comment on publications. Journalists complain on\r\nimproptness of providing public information of importance.

Вecause of the requirement of the law \"On introducing changes and\r\namendments to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on\r\ninformation and communication issues\", some Kazakhstan Internet resources\r\nlaunched a mechanism for user identification.

So, famous Pavlodar\r\nonline news portal pavon.kz launched user identification mechanism on January\r\n8. Before leaving a comment, users are invited to access the site through an\r\naccount in social networks or register on the site. After that, the user must\r\nagree with the terms and conditions offered by the site and indicate his/her phone\r\nnumber. It is possible to leave a comment only after entering a password sent\r\nby the webite to user\'s mobile phone. The editor of pavon.kz Eugene Schultais\r\nsays that the administration of the website used the help of a company\r\nproviding SMS notifications services.

According to\r\nYevgeny Shultais, pavon.kz pays to that company \r\nseven tenge on average, for registering each new user. The number of\r\nregistered new users is not known yet. Nevertheless, activity of users has\r\ndecreased, but their discontent has grown.

Some Kazakhstan\r\nInternet resources, such as news websites lada.kz, 365info.kz, ratel.kz and\r\nothers, have disabled the opportunity to leave comments.

Igor Loskutov, the\r\ngeneral director of the company \"JurInfo\" , that owns Zakon.kz, says\r\nthat the amendments to the law do not contain such words as \"Internet\r\nresource\", \r\n\"website\", \r\n\"internet-portal\", therefore, the new requirement is not\r\napplicable to \"Jurinfo\".

- The Ministry of Information and Communications is\r\ndeveloping the information system \"Automated monitoring of the national\r\ninformation space\".

According\r\nto the information from the department, nowadays  republican and regional television and radio\r\nchannels, print media, information agencies and network resources, registered\r\nwith the authorized body are already monitored. Their total number is about\r\n930. It is also reported that social networks and the foreign segment of the\r\nInternet are monitored in order to identify materials that violate the laws of\r\nthe Republic of Kazakhstan (propaganda of terrorism, extremism, suicide). After\r\nthe information system is comlpeted, it is expected that the number of media\r\nunder monitoring will increase.

The\r\nlaunch of completed information system is planned for the end of 2018. The\r\namount of 1.671 billion tenge is allocated from the republican budget for\r\ndeveloping the system.

- Court admitted that the publication of information on\r\nspecific recipients of budgetary money would violate \"the legitimate\r\nrights and interests of individuals.\"

On\r\nJanuary 25 the specialized inter-district court of Astana  rejected the claim of  the public foundation \"North Kazakhstan\r\nLegal Media Center\"  to the Ministry\r\nof Information and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The\r\ncause for the claim was the refusal of the Ministry to provide information on\r\nthe results of the placement of the state order for  information policy implementation for\r\nimproving the image of state bodies. The legal media center also asked for the\r\nnames of the media that won the contest and amounts that were allocated to\r\nthem.

Director\r\nof the North Kazakhstan Legal Media Center Diana Medvednikova (Okremova)\r\nreports on her Facebook page: the judge refused to satisfy our lawsuit for\r\nseveral reasons: \"Firstly, the refusal of the MIC to provide the\r\ninformation did not violate our rights, because they provided the total amount\r\nof state information order (2 000 069 247 tenge). Secondly, the publication of\r\ninformation on specific recipients of budgetary money \"violates the legal\r\nrights and interests of individuals.\" He did not explain how. But before\r\nthat, the representatives of the Ministry had voiced out their arguments ... It\r\nturns out to be that public awareness of the non-governement  media receiving money from the budget could\r\nharm their credibility and worsen their image. And accordingly it could worsen\r\nthe attitude of society to the state order. And the media that do not receive\r\nstate orders can put pressure on the commission that distributes those orders. \"

\"Thus,\r\nthe state body did not restrict the access to information and the current\r\nlegislation has not been violated,\" the court decision says.

 - Seitkazy Matayev, head of Union of Journalists of\r\nKazakhstan, awarded with medal \"For bravery\" named after well-known\r\nrights advocate Andrey Sakharov

January,\r\n17

Seikazy Matayev, chairman of the Union of Journalists\r\nof Kazakhstan, has been awarded with the medal \"For bravery\" named\r\nafter well-known rights advocate Andrey Sakharov.
\r\n\"S.Matayev has been awarded with the medal\r\n\"For bravery\" named after well-known rights advocate A.Sakharov in\r\nthe nomination \"Journalism as a deed\" .
\r\n“The jury has considered dozens of candidatures\r\nof rights advocates, journalists and civil activists. S.Matayev did not apply\r\nfor the premium, but the decision to award him came from the contest\r\norganizers,\" said the jury members.
\r\nThe medal \"For bravery\" is one of\r\nprestigious awards for activists who have been prosecuted by the authorities\r\nfor their active civil position. The prize was established in 2001. The jury\r\nincludes writers, journalists, rights advocates and sociologists. Among the\r\nlaureates of the prize have been Anna Politkovskaya, Otto Lacis, Boris\r\nVishnevskiy, editorials of Radio Freedom, Russian service BBC, Novaya Gazeta,\r\nEcho of Moscow radio.

4 criminal charges were\r\nbrought againt media and citizens in connection with the exercise of the right\r\nto freedom of expression, the receipt and dissemination of information in\r\nJanuary, 2018

including:

On January 9,\r\nthe Karasai District Court of the Almaty region recognized Yeraltai Abay, resident\r\nof the Karasai district, guilty of committing a crime under Art. 256 p. 2 of\r\nthe Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (\"Propaganda of terrorism\r\nor public calls for the acts of terrorism\"). The court sentenced him to\r\nseven years of imprisonment with serving his sentence in a general regime\r\ncolony.

E. Abay\'s lawer\r\nGalym Nurpeisov told the reporter of the radio Azattyk that  there was no prosecution evidence in this\r\ncase. According to the lawyer, Yeraltay Abay was arrested in August 2017 for\r\nreposting excerpts from religious literature in the social network\r\n\"VKontakte\". One of such posts, which the defendant published, was an\r\nexcerpt from the collection of fatwas \"Ad-Durar Al-Sania.\"

Meanwhile, the\r\nhead of the Religious Expertise Department of the Committee for Religious\r\nAffairs of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Civil Society Balgabek Mirzaev\r\nwhen asked by Azattyk reporter, did not find the book \"Ad-Durar\r\nAl-Sania\" in the list of literature banned in Kazakhstan.

In the final\r\nword Yeraltay Abay pleaded not guilty and stated that \"he was not a\r\nterrorist and he did not propagate terrorism.\"

On January 15,\r\nthe Kazybekbiy district court of Karaganda found 28-year-old Mikhail Tkachev\r\nand a resident of Petropavlovsk, 65-year-old Uali Aliaskarov guilty under art.\r\n174 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (inciting ethnic and\r\nreligious hatred) and sentenced them to five years in prison.

They were\r\ncharged with \"a serious crime against peace and public order\" and\r\n\"deliberate actions aimed at incitement of ethnic and religious hatred, as\r\nwell as propaganda of exclusivity and superiority on the basis of  religion and nationality committed in public,\r\nin a group of persons by prior agreement, using information and communication\r\nnetworks \".

Defense lawyer\r\nIgor Kiryanov  asked the court to\r\ndischarge the accused on every count, since the state prosecution did not\r\nidentify what criminal actions were committed by the defendants.

As radio\r\nAzattyk informs, materials of religious studies that were attached to the case\r\nof two alleged members of the \"occult organization of the USSR\" show\r\nthat books the accused allegedly distributed and discussed, are not prohibited\r\non the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Two religious examination\r\nstudies were carried out by the Committee for Religious Affairs at the request\r\nof  Tkachev\'s wife.

Meanwhile,\r\nearlier one of the experts involved in the comprehensive examination of\r\nmaterials said that the texts contained \"signs of inciting national and\r\nreligious discord\" and \"statements about the superiority\" of one\r\nnation.

M. Tkachev and\r\nU. Aliaskarov pleaded not guilty.

7  judicial acts were\r\nissued on cases of protection of honor, dignity and business reputation\r\n(including 1 in appeal) in January. Three  of them were in favor of the media,\r\njournalists and citizens.

9  letters before\r\naction and claims for protection of honor, dignity and business reputation were\r\nfiled in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression in\r\nJanuary. Claims for compensation for moral damage in January amounted to 9\r\nmillion 200 thousand tenge. The courts collected  30 thousand tenge. 

The\r\nmonitoring was done according to reports of the Adil Soz Foundation\'s\r\ncorrespondents  and information from open sources.

Head of monitoring service\r\nof Adil Soz Foundation Elena Tsoi
\r\ne-mail: lena@adilsoz.kz

For all questions regarding\r\nthe  monitoring, you may also contact
\r\ninfo@adilsoz.kz