Violations of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan. May, 2018

- Court banned online mass medium Ratel.kz.

On May\r\n28 judge of Medeu district court of Almaty Gulmira Beysenova proclaimed the\r\ndecision on the lawsuit of Prosecutor of Medeu district of Almaty filed against\r\nonline media outlet RATEL kz. The decision said \"to ban the analytical\r\nInternet portal Ratel.kz and to prohibit the use of the domain name Ratel.kz in\r\nKazakhstan’s segment of the Internet media for one year\". Besides,\r\naccording to the decision, it is prohibited for the editor-in-chief Marat\r\nAsipov and other employees of the media outlet to publish the news items of\r\ntheir internet portal in other media, including social networks, using the name\r\nof RATEL kz.

Marat Asipov intends to challenge the decision under file .

- Apartment of deputy editor of Forbes\r\nKazakhstan Alexander Vorotilov was searched again. The journalist is a witness\r\nin a case on criminal dissimination of false information.

- Most mass media ignored unauthorised\r\nprotest actions that took place in many large cities of Kazakhstan on May 10.\r\nExperts believe it to be an indicator of the level of freedom of speech in the\r\ncountry.

A journalist of a newspaper working on state order told Radio Azattyk\r\nthat \"mass media that depend  on the\r\nauthorities to any extent, can not disseminate information about such events\r\nwithout their permission.\" The journalist fears that the newspaper where\r\nhe works can be placed under  pressure,\r\nso he asked not to mention his name. According to him, \"there are topics\r\nthat Kazakhstani media do not cover, the topics that are  censored.\"

According to Tamara Kaleyeva, the head of the Adil Soz\r\nFoundation,\"The media whose freedoms are not limited will cover such\r\nevents for sure, because such events affect the rating of the edition. Some TV\r\nchannels used to have at least some freedom, but that time they did not report\r\nanything. There are some brave journalists, but the media entities are\r\nafraid\" T.Kaleyeva commented to Radio Azattyk. 

(...) this situation ruffle feathers \r\nof the media and authorities that have established censorship. \"

Another expert, the author of several scientific studies on freedom of\r\nspeech Kuandyk Shamankhai, believes: \"In Kazakhstan, censorship has been\r\nabolished on paper, but in fact it still exists. In addition, there is a\r\ncensorship of people\'s mind that makes \"to act with regard to the\r\nauthorities.\" Perhaps they think that if they cover it, it will look like\r\nthey support the opposition. Media should not support protest actions but to\r\nprovide accurate information\"

- The Committee of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Internal\r\nAffairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan warned the editors of the site\r\n\"Nasha Gazeta\" (\"Our Newspaper\") about the restriction of\r\naccess to the resource if the editors do not comply with the law requiring\r\nmandatory identification of users wishing to comment on the publications.

In the order of the\r\nCommittee sent to the site ng.kz and its owner LLP \"Your chance \",\r\nthe  editorial staff was requested to eliminate the violation within 10\r\nworking days. Otherwise, instructions will be issued  to limit access to\r\nthis Internet resource on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan in\r\naccordance with paragraph 1-1 of Article 41-1 of the Law of the Republic of\r\nKazakhstan\" On Communications \".

As the\r\neditorial board believes, the threat of restricting the acess to the website is\r\nnot based on the law, since the Terms for commenting are posted on the website\r\nand comments are under pre-moderation control. Besides the editorial board\r\nbelieves that the Ministry did not keep its promise to clarify the technical\r\naspects of users registration on electronic resources. Moreover, in January the\r\nMinistry of Information and Communications in its response to Radio Azattyk\'s\r\nrequest promised to post on its website a sample agreement between an online\r\nresource and the user. That sample agreement still can not be found on the\r\nministry\'s website.

- The criminal proceedings against\r\nhuman rights activist Alexander Kharlamov initiated by the police in March\r\n2013  on suspicion of inciting religious\r\nhatred were ceased.

The investigator of the department of\r\ninternal affairs of the city of Ridder of the East Kazakhstan region Yerzhan\r\nTokzhigitov issued a decree on the termination of the criminal case instituted\r\nunder art. 174 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (inciting\r\nreligious hatred) against the 68-year-old human rights activist  Alexander Kharlamov. The public prosecutor\r\nSait Aimukhan supported the decision of the investigator. On May 5 Kharlamov\r\nreceived both documants - the investigator\'s decision and the approval of the\r\nprosecutor - and informed  the reporter\r\nof Azattyk of that. The same documents сancelledKarlamov\'s written undertaking not to\r\nleave that was in effect sicnce September 4, 2013.

As it was reported earlier, the criminal case\r\nwas initiated in March 2013. The police found signs of a new religious trend in\r\nthe human rights activist\'s posts in the social network \"My World\".\r\nAccording to law enforcement officials, the author took the liberty to\r\ncriticize and make negative statements about Islam, Catholicism, Orthodoxy and\r\nJudaism.

On March 17, 2013 Kharlamov was arrested and\r\nsent to  compulsory psychiatric\r\nexamination that found him sane. Later, on August 17, 2013, the case was\r\nconsidered by the Ridder city court and was refered for further investigation\r\nby the motion of the prosecutor. According to the prosecutor there were newly\r\ndiscovered circumstances in the case that made to change the charges for quite\r\ndifferent ones. On September 4, 2013 Kharlamov was released from the pre-trial\r\ndetention center in Ust-Kamenogorsk under a written undertaking not to leave\r\nthe place.

4\r\n judicial acts were issued against media and citizens in connection with\r\nthe exercise of the right to freedom of expression , the receipt and\r\ndissemination of information on cases of protection of honor, dignity and business\r\nreputation (including 3 in appeal) in May. Three of them were in favor of the\r\nmedia, journalists and citizens. 

28\r\n letters before action and claims were filed in connection with the\r\nexercise of the right to freedom of expression since the beginning of the year.\r\n22 of them were  letters before action and\r\nclaims on protection of honor, dignity and business reputation. Claims for\r\ncompensation for moral damage in January-May amounted to 228 million 200\r\nthousand and 1 tenge. The courts collected 90 thousand tenge. 

The monitoring was done according\r\nto reports of the Adil Soz Foundation\'s correspondents  and information\r\nfrom open sources.

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

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

info@adilsoz.kz