Violations of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan October, 2018

The International Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech\r\n\"Adil Soz\" conducted a study of the situation with the right to\r\nfreedom of expression, receipt and dissemination of information in Kazakhstan\r\nin October 2018.

It reports:

- The\r\nAlmaty City Court in the appeal hearings found leal the order of the Ministry\r\nof Information and Communications “On invalidation of the registration  certificate of online edition“ The analytical\r\nInternet portal Ratel.kz ”and upheld the decision of the Medeu district court\r\nto ban the popular edition.

On May 28, Gulmira Beisenova, the judge of the Medeu\r\ndistrict court of Almaty, ruled to cease publishing of Ratel.kz online edition,\r\ncanceled the registration and banned the use of the domain name Ratel.kz in the\r\nKazakhstan media segment of the Internet for one year with the same or\r\nduplicating name.

Besdies, the court ruled to prohibit Marat Asipov, the editor-in-chief\r\nof the analytical Internet portal Ratel.kz to distribute information materials\r\nunder the name Ratel.kz in media, Internet resources and domain names Ratel.kz,\r\nBalborsyk.kz, Wildratel.com, Itau.kz and others domain names.

The trial was initiated by A. Aitzhanov, the prosecutor of the Medeu\r\ndistrict of Almaty. The prosecutor explained his demands as follows:

-  information is published on the\r\ndomain name Ratel.kz  after the death of\r\nits owner Gennady Benditsky (the Ratel.kz domain was registered to Gennady\r\nBenditsky. The journalist died after a serious illness on December 3, 2017);

- Balborsyk.kz used of the rights of \r\nRatel.kz owner;

- the hardware and software complex hosting the Ratel.kz Internet\r\nresource is located outside the Republic of Kazakhstan;

- articles are published in Kazakh and English as well, although only\r\nRussian is indicated in the certificate of registration of Ratel.kz.

As the prosecutor believes, all those facts violate the norms of the\r\n“Rules for registration, use and distribution of domain names in the space of\r\nthe Kazakhstani segment of the Internet” (paragraphs 17. 23) and the law “On\r\nMass Media” (paragraphs 5, 6, art. 10, pp 3, 4 art. 13).

Court hearings on the ban of the popular Kazakhstan information portal\r\nlasted from March 30.

On May 28, Gulmira Beisenova, the judge of the Medeu district court of\r\nAlmaty, ruled to cease publishing of Ratel.kz online edition, canceled the\r\nregistration and banned the use of the domain name Ratel.kz in the Kazakhstan\r\nmedia segment of the Internet for one year with the same or duplicating name.

Besdies, the court ruled to prohibit Marat Asipov, the editor-in-chief\r\nof the analytical Internet portal Ratel.kz to distribute information materials\r\nunder the name Ratel.kz in media, Internet resources and domain names Ratel.kz,\r\nBalborsyk.kz, Wildratel.com, Itau.kz and others domain names.

The trial was initiated by A. Aitzhanov, the prosecutor of the Medeu\r\ndistrict of Almaty. The prosecutor explained his demands as follows:

-  information is published on the\r\ndomain name Ratel.kz  after the death of\r\nits owner Gennady Benditsky (the Ratel.kz domain was registered to Gennady\r\nBenditsky. The journalist died after a serious illness on December 3, 2017);

- Balborsyk.kz used of the rights of \r\nRatel.kz owner;

- the hardware and software complex hosting the Ratel.kz Internet\r\nresource is located outside the Republic of Kazakhstan;

- articles are published in Kazakh and English as well, although only\r\nRussian is indicated in the certificate of registration of Ratel.kz.

As the prosecutor believes, all those facts violate the norms of the\r\n“Rules for registration, use and distribution of domain names in the space of\r\nthe Kazakhstani segment of the Internet” (paragraphs 17. 23) and the law “On\r\nMass Media” (paragraphs 5, 6, art. 10, pp 3, 4 art. 13).

Court hearings on the ban of the popular Kazakhstan information portal\r\nlasted from March 30.

The children of the journalist Gennady Benditsky - Oleg Benditsky and\r\nthe underage Katya (represented by Gennady\'s wife Anna Ustinova) participated\r\nin the hearings as third parties making independent claims on the subject of\r\nthe dispute.

At a hearings on April 19, it became known that the day before,\r\non April 18, the Information Committee of the Ministry of Information and\r\nCommunications of the Republic of Kazakhstan had issued order No. 2 “On\r\ninvalidating the certificate of registration of the online edition “Analytical\r\nInternet portal Ratel.kz ”. The order of the Prosecutor General\'s Office was\r\nthe predicate for the ministry\'s order.

The children of Gennady, Oleg and Ekaterina Benditsky  appealed the decisions and actions of\r\n“Information Committee of the Ministry of Information and Communications of the\r\nRepublic of Kazakhstan” at the  district\r\ncourt number 2 of the Auezov district of Almaty to protect their right to\r\ninherit the domain name Ratel.kz,

On July 13, the judge of the Auezov District Court of Almaty,\r\nGulzhan Imanserikova, rejected their claims.

On October 15, the appeal of Oleg and Ekaterina Benditsky was\r\nconsidered by the Almaty City Court.

The Appeals Board found the order of the Ministry of Finance legal, and\r\ndismissed the Benditsky\'s complaint.

On October 23, the ruling of Medeu District Court from May 28,\r\n2018 to ban Ratel.kz entered into legal force.

Almaty City Court dismissed the appeals of the defendant, private\r\nentreprise “Kazakhstan”, Marat Asipov and third parties Oleg and Catherine\r\nBenditsky .

The journalists appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee about the\r\ncourts rulings to protect their rights.

- Senator Dariga Nazarbayeva considers the biggest challenge that\r\njournalism faces -  to be a moderator or\r\na mediator between the state and society, to be able to convey the “gibberish\r\nspeech of officials” to the widest audience.

«“The ability to convey the gibberish speech of officials to the widest\r\naudience, if you\'ll pardon the expression. If we are talking about a health\r\ncare development program, it means the ability to convey to everyone what it\r\nmeans for him/her personally, what we are to wish when we come to hospitals and\r\nreceive medical services. If we are talking about the state program for the\r\ndevelopment of education, you should also explain every parent and teacher what\r\nthe society expects from them and what the program is aimed at, and what the\r\nmoney is meant for and how the money is spent.

 (...) We must be able to explain people what  was said, what the parliament is doing today,\r\nwhat law it adopts and why it is needed, people want to know in which\r\nindustries the law is adopted, will it complicate their life  or make it easier, if you pose these\r\nquestions, will always be on top, will be demanded and very popular, ” said D.\r\nNazarbayeva, addressing young journalists at the Jas Qalam forum.

- The government decree approved four state bodies that have the right\r\nto priority use, as well as to suspend the activities of networks and\r\ncommunications when there is a threat of an emergency or if a state of\r\nemergency is introduced.

These are:

1. The General Prosecutor\'s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

2. The National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

3. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

4. Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The decree “On Amendments to the Decree of the Government of the\r\nRepublic of Kazakhstan dated April 13, 2005 No. 347“ On Approving the List of\r\nGovernment Agencies Communication Control Centers, that participate in managing\r\ncommunication networks in cases of emergency of natural and technological character\r\n”comes into effect from the date of its signing - October 25, 2018

- The police of the Karaganda region initiated a pre-trial\r\ninvestigation  against the top manager of\r\nArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC Galymzhan Kunakbayev for impending legal  professional activities of journalist Oleg\r\nGusev.

5  judicial\r\nacts were issued against media and citizens in connection with the exercise of\r\nthe right to freedom of expression , the receipt and dissemination of\r\ninformation on cases of protection of honor, dignity and business reputation\r\n(including 1 cassation) in October. Four of them was in favor of the media,\r\njournalists and citizens.

The 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:

- 39 criminal charges, including\r\n20 in court.

- 62\r\nclaims and suits in civil procedure. Among them, 51 claims and lawsuits for\r\nprotection of honor, dignity and business reputation.

- Claims\r\nfor compensation for non-pecuniary damage amounted to 242 million 800 thousand and\r\n1 tenge in January-October. The courts collected 340 thousand tenge.

The monitoring was done\r\naccording to reports of the Adil Soz Foundation\'s correspondents  and\r\ninformation from open sources.

Head 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