The\r\nInternational Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech \"Adil\r\nSoz\" conducted a study of the situation with the right to freedom of\r\nexpression, receipt and dissemination of information in Kazakhstan in September\r\n2018.
\r\nIt reports:
\r\n-- A research group under the guidance of lawyer Timur Yerdzhanov\r\npresented proposals media legislation\r\nreform. Human rights activists believe that \"this time the mountain has\r\nbrought forth not a mouse, but a rat that will gobble up us all.\"
\r\nIn the spring of 2018 the Ministry of Information and Communications of\r\nKazakhstan announced a tender for “further improvement” of legislation after\r\namendments to media legislation had been already adopted in December 2017. A\r\nresearch group under guidance of lawyer Timur Yerdzhanov won the tender.
\r\nIn August media NGOs and lawyers of television companies met with the\r\nhead of that group. Adil Soz send all information it had to him - from the memorandums of Article 19, OSCE\r\nrecommendations to its own concepts.
\r\nBy the second meeting scheduled for September 5, the Ministry sent out\r\n“Suggested topics for discussion at the meeting”. There are only 9\r\ntopics, including:
\r\n\"1. In the area of state obligations to ensure citizens\'\r\ninformation rights:
\r\n- to formalise organization and\r\nprotect of media pluralism as the duty of the state;
\r\n- to participate in strengthening \r\ninformation culture and counteracting the manipulation of information\r\nthrough the development of compulsory state standards of education;
\r\n- to supplement of the system of media principles with the principles of\r\npluralism, independence of editorial policy, and non-discrimination.
\r\n…
\r\n4. In the area of a more precise balance between the rights to disseminate information and privacy protection:
\r\n- to include the notions of \"public figure\" and\r\n\"journalistic investigation\" into the Mass Media Law;
\r\n- to eliminate the possibility of publishing private images and\r\ninformation by using the images and\r\ninformation previously posted as publicly available\r\nwithout the consent of the depicted or described person;
\r\n- to include a short-term and insignificant volume of publication of\r\nimages in total volume of media products as a basis for publishing images\r\nwithout consent;
\r\n- to eliminate the possibility of publishing personal or private data of\r\nnon-public figures;
\r\n- to propose to secure the right of persons to apply to media and legal\r\nbodies for preventive injunction of\r\ndissemination of information related to them.
\r\n…
\r\n7. In the field of personal data protection:
\r\n- to propose to secure the right of persons to be forgotten and to\r\ndemand its observance from media and\r\nowners of Internet resources with the possibility go through the courts
\r\nTamara Kaleyeva, the president of Adil Soz foundation, believes that all\r\nrecommendations (except for two) are aimed to fulfill the officials\' desires contrary\r\nto Mr.Erdzhanov’s belief that the recommendations are to protect private life\r\nof regular persons: «To separate regular persons from not ordinry ones, the researhes,\r\nwhose work is funded by state order of the ministry, recommend introducing the\r\nconcept of \"public figure\". Such figures can be criticized, their incomes\r\nand activities can be reported, as for the others – no private information can\r\nbe reported without their documented permission. What are the parameters to\r\ndefine a public figure? It is clear that a minister is public figure, it is\r\nunderstandable that akim (mayor) is considered to be a public fugure, but what\r\nabout the chairman of housing and communal services or an assistant of a deputy\r\nhead of a department of something, whom media had never written a word before\r\nand suddenly began to criticize? Again, everyone knows that our corrupt officials\r\nconvey “hard-earned” assets to their relatives. It turns out to be that a\r\nmother-in-law of some minister that suddenly became a rich woman is an ordinary\r\nperson and journalists cannot explore the sources of her wealth without being\r\nounished for that».
\r\n\r\n
- The administrative court of Aktau fined French director and journalist\r\nVincent Prado for violating the accreditation rules: he indicated\r\n\"Kazakhstan, including Almaty and Astana\" as shooting locationsin in\r\nhis application to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, but went to film in Mangistau as well. Later, the Ministry of\r\nForeign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan stated that temporary\r\naccreditation issued to the French journalist and director V. Prado to make\r\nfilm shooting is Kazakhstan-wide.
\r\nOn September 27 the specialized administrative court of Aktau issued a\r\nruling against the French journalist Vincent Prado.
\r\nPrado and his translator Danara were detained by migration police\r\nofficers when they were recording an interview with a participant of Zhanaozen\r\nevents.
\r\nThe director was accused of violating the rules of accreditation. Danara\r\nexplained by telephone that before his trip to our country Prado submitted an\r\napplication to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry where he indicated \"Kazakhstan,\r\nincluding Almaty and Astana\" as shooting locations. He was accused of\r\nshooting in Mangistau though having permision to shoot in Almaty and Astana only.
\r\nThe French journalist pleaded not guilty: “I do not plead guilty. I am accredited\r\nand I did not violate the law. But I will abide with the court decision».
\r\nJudge Gulmira Suieuova found Vincent Prado guilty in violation of part 5\r\nof article 517 of the Code of Administrative Infractions of the Republic of\r\nKazakhstan («The violation by the foreigner or person without citizenship of\r\nthe legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of population shift\r\nwhich was expressed in evasion from departure during the period exceeding three\r\ndays after the expiration specified in the visa or at registration in a\r\nmigration card»…). The journalist was fined for 25 Monthly Calculation Index\r\n(60125 tenge).
\r\nMeanwhile, the Ministry of\r\nForeign Affairs responded to the written information request from Radio Azattyk\r\nthat temporary accreditation issued to the French journalist and director V. Prado\r\nto make film shooting is Kazakhstan-wide. Also, the ministry’s press secretary,\r\nAibek Smadiyarov stated that Prado’s accreditation ended on September 27, but\r\nit was extended til October 10 after the appeal of Vincent Prado to the Foreign\r\nMinistry.
\r\n\r\n
- In Astana police detained a journalist of Radio Azattyk “by mistake”.
\r\nAs Radio Azattyk reported, on\r\nSeptember 17 in Astana policemen detained journalist Svetlana Glushkova at the\r\nsite where \"action in support of political prisoners\" was supposed to\r\nbe conducted when she arrived to cover the event. She was taken by police car\r\nto the building of Esil district police department, where the first deputy head\r\nof the Internal Affairs Directorate apologized to her and said that the\r\njournalist was detained \"by mistake\".
\r\nPolice car took Glushkova back to the place of detention - to the\r\nbuilding on Kosmonavtov Street, where diplomatic missions of Western countries\r\nare situated and where the event was supposed to take place.
\r\nTogether with the journalist police officers took a girl in a white\r\nT-shirt and a black jacket to the police car. They took her out of the car at\r\nthe building of the Internal Affairs Directorate and what happened to her\r\nafterwards is unknown. On September 17,\r\ntens of policemen were seen on Kosmonavtov street. According to eyewitnesses,\r\npolice stopped people dressed in white at the place of the supposed protest\r\naction .
\r\nAccording to Radio Azattyk, those actions were caused by former banker\r\nand critic of Astana Mukhtar Ablyazov. Living abroad he on September 13, invited his social networks readers to\r\npublish their photos in white clothes in support of the persecuted civil\r\nactivists whom Kazakhstan human rights activists included in the \" list of political prisoners \".
\r\n\r\n
2\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 1 in appeal) in September. One of them was in favor of\r\nthe media, journalists and citizens.
\r\nThe following actions chrges were\r\nfiled since the beginning of the year in connection with the exercise of the\r\nright to freedom of expression:
\r\n- 35 criminal charges, including\r\n17 in court.
\r\n- 57\r\nclaims and suits in civil procedure. Among them, 40 claims and lawsuits for\r\nprotection of honor, dignity and business reputation.
\r\n- Claims\r\nfor compensation for non-pecuniary damage amounted to 229 million 300 thousand\r\n1 tenge in January-August. The courts collected 190\r\nthousand tenge.
\r\nThe monitoring was done\r\naccording to reports of the Adil Soz Foundation\'s correspondents and\r\ninformation from open sources.
\r\nHead of monitoring\r\nservice of Adil Soz Foundation Elena Tsoi
\r\ne-mail: lena@adilsoz.kz
For all questions\r\nregarding the monitoring, you may also contact
\r\ninfo@adilsoz.kz
