Violations of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan. August 2019

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 August\r\n2019.

Itreports:

- Ratel.kz will be able to resume its work from October 23.

on May 28, 2018 judge of the Medeu District Court of\r\nAlmaty, Gulmira Beisenova banned the analytical Internet portal Ratel.kz\r\nand  prohibited the use of the domain\r\nname Ratel.kz in Kazakhstan’s segment of the Internet media for one year.\r\nBesides it was prohibited for the editor-in-chief Marat Asipov and other employees\r\nof the media outlet to publish the news items of their internet portal in other\r\nmedia, including social networks, using the name of RATEL kz in the media,\r\nInternet resources and on the domain names Ratel.kz, Balborsyk.kz,\r\nWildratel.com, Itau.kz and other domain names.

A year later, Marat\r\nAsipov asked the district court to clarify when the website will be unblocked,\r\nwhen the certificate of registration of this media outlet will be restored, and\r\nwhether it is possible for him to distribute information materials on behalf of\r\nRatel.kz in the media as the editor-in-chief.

On June 10, judge of the\r\nMedeu District Court of Almaty Gulmira Beisenova dismissed the claim of the\r\neditor-in-chief. Right after the court hearings Gulmira Beisenova \r\nclarified: the registration certificate was withdrawn from Ratel.kz, it is\r\nforbidden to write anything on behalf of it and the on behalf of media outlets\r\nrlated to it, the media outlet does not exist any longer. Asipov, if he wants,\r\ncan register a new media outlet and work in it.

On August 13, 2019, the\r\nAppeals Board on Civil Cases of the Almaty City Court reverse the \r\ndecision judge of the Medeu District Court of Almaty, Gulmira Beisenova, dated\r\nJune 10, made at the lawsuit of Marat Asipov, the former editor-in-chief of online\r\nmedia Ratel.kz. The  matter was remitted for a fresh trial to Medeu\r\ndistrict court and will be heard by the same composition of the court.

On August 28, Judge of\r\nthe Medeu District Court of Almaty Yerzhan Chingisov issued a new ruling on the\r\nsuit of Marat Asipov in accordance with the decision of the appellate board of\r\nthe city court : the online media outlet RATEL.kz may be resume its work\r\nstarting from October 23, and Marat Asipov will can still be  its head.

- The first president of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev is for tougher\r\npunishment for defamation.

The first president of Kazakhstan,\r\nNursultan Nazarbayev, considers it necessary to toughen the punishment for\r\nslander.

On August 21, he said at the\r\nenlarged meeting of the Nur Otan party : “Today, the number of new media and\r\nchannels distorting reality is growing. For no reason they publish some polls.\r\nWhether it is  truth or not - just try to\r\nfigure it out. And everyone, including the whole media group of the party\r\ncompising TV channels, newspapers, is keeping silence and doing nothing.\r\nCentral information channels are keepng silence as well - Oh, we are afraid.\r\n(...) The party must initiate the adoption of the law, toughening the\r\npunishment for defamation. Nobody gave the right to swear and insult indiscriminately,\r\nto bring to an absurdity the things that are being done in our country. ”

Minister of Information and Public\r\nDevelopment Dauren Abayev said that Elbasy’s concern “is primarily caused by\r\nthe occurance of a large number of anonymous sources, fake accounts, pages that\r\nspread false information that could harm the reputation, honor and dignity of\r\ncitizens.” He also said: “The order was given the day before yesterday to our\r\nspecialists to consider this issue, work will be definitely carried out with\r\nthe General Prosecutor\'s Office, the Supreme Court, human rights organizations,\r\nand the Nur Otan parliamentary party. International experience will be studied.\r\n

”Human rights activists believe that\r\ntougher punishment for defamation contradicts \r\nKazakhstan’s international obligations.

“We have obligations under the\r\nInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, we have recommendations\r\nthat we must comply with, and the proposal to tighten the punishment by issuing\r\na special law, which no UN member country has \r\ncan\'t be commented on \", - said the president of the International\r\nFoundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech Adil Soz Tamara Kaleeva to\r\nKazTAG news agency.

- Google Chrome added the Kazakhstan national security certificate to\r\nthe set of revoked certificates as part of user protection. Qaznet Trust\r\nNetwork was also blocked by Apple and Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox\r\nbrowser.

On August 6, the press service of\r\nthe National Security Committee (NSC) of the Republic of Kazakhstan issued a press\r\nrelease on the successful completion of testing \r\nthe security certificate and \r\ncreation of a system that resulted in \"creating a system to prevent\r\ncyber threats in both cyber and the information space.\"

The press release said that the\r\nsecurity certificate will be applied in the future if there is a threat to\r\nnational security in the form of cyber and information attacks, with prior\r\nnotification of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

On August 8, a press release\r\nappeared on the NSC website with a link where from users could download\r\ninstructions for removing the security certificate from their personal devices.

On August 21, Google Chrome\r\ndevelopers published information on their security blog that,  the Kazakhstan national security certificate\r\nwas added to the set of revoked certificates as part of users protection.\r\nBesides the certificate would be blacklisted in the Chromium source code.The\r\nQaznet Trust Network was also blocked by Mozilla Firefox and Apple. According\r\nto the statement by Google and Mozilla Firefox, Kazakhstan’s national security\r\ncertificate allows interception of data and passwords of 18 million citizens of\r\nthe country.

- Investigators drag thier feet on\r\ninvestigating the July 22 attack on journalists. This was stated by lawyer\r\nAiman Umarova, representing the interests of aggrieved journalists.

On July 22, at 11 AM, the press\r\nconference on the case of Oksana Shevchuk, who is accused of being connected\r\nwith the banned organization of Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK), was\r\nscheduled at the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights. They begaved\r\nlike real provocateurs attacking journalists and speakers of the press-conference.

Asaresultofthepogrom,\r\nthecameraofrepresentativesofRadioAzattykwasdamaged,\r\nthetelevisioncameraofAlmatyTVjournalistsalsowasdamaged, thecellphonesofjournalistsSergeyDuvanov, MargaritaKhoduswerestolen, asmartphoneandacamerawerestolenfromKazTAGcorrespondents.

 Reporters filed a statement with the police.\r\nLater, the police department reported that an investigation was initiated under\r\nArticle 389 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan\r\n“Self-government” and that 8 complaints were received in connection with the\r\nincident - five of them from the organizers of the press conference and\r\njournalists, three from those who allegedly suffered bodily harm caused by\r\nmedia and representatives of the organizers of the press conference.

On August\r\n12, the Adil Soz Foundation held a press conference on  impeding \r\nthe legitimate professional activities of journalists. Lawyer Aiman\r\nUmarova, that acts of behalf of ggrivated journalists, said that the\r\ninvestigators drag their feet on investigation: “They changed the investigators\r\ntwice, the case is foot-dragged. The equipment has not yet been returned. ”-\r\n[Police] have not taken the statements of the victims Nurgul Tapaeva and\r\nTokmolda Kusainov yet. They took explanatory notes. This is not a procedural\r\ndocument. Just for the public they said: “Here we are doing something,” and\r\nthat’s all. People are beaten. The next move - there should be an order for\r\nforensic medical examination. These people (journalists of Azattyk) also\r\nappealed to the prosecutor’s office of the Auezov district of Almaty asking for\r\nthe orders for a forensic medical examination. They did not issue such orders.\r\nThey are waiting for abrasions and bruises to all go away, ”said Aiman Umarova.

- Petropavlovsk journalist Elena Kuznetsova has compelled compensation\r\nfor non-pecuniary damage for unlawful prosecution.

Judge of the\r\nPetropavlovsk City Court No. 2 Dinara Ispaeva, satisfied the claim of the\r\neditor-in-chief of the \"Kvartal\" newspaper Elena Kuznetsova, for\r\ncompensation for non-pecuniary damage for unlawful criminal prosecution in the\r\namount of 700 thousand tenge.

The reason\r\nfor the criminal prosecution was two articles by the journalist published last\r\nNovember   and telling about the property\r\nconflict of two business entities. The persons mentioned in  the articles considered it written defamation\r\nand demanded to institute criminal proceedings against E. Kuznetsova under part\r\n3 of article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (slander\r\ncommitted with the use of mass media and connected with accusation of person in\r\ncommission of corruption, grievous or especially grave crime, as well as\r\nresulted the grave consequences).

On March 15\r\nJudge Saule Litfullina recognized the arguments of the prosecutors as valid and\r\nsentenced the editor-in-chief to one year of restriction of freedom with the\r\nprobation supervision.

On June 18,\r\nthe Criminal Appeals Board of the North Kazakhstan Regional Court reversed the\r\njudgement as it was found that no crime had been committed. After that E.\r\nKuznetsova filed a claim for compensation for non-pecuniary damage.

5  judicial acts were issued against media and\r\ncitizens in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression\r\n, the receipt and dissemination of information on cases of protection of honor,\r\ndignity and business reputation in August\r\n2019. All five of them\r\nwere in favor of the media, journalists and citizens.

The following charges were filed  in connection with the exercise of the right\r\nto freedom of expression:

- 4 criminal charges, including 3 in\r\ncourt.

- 1 administrative charge

- 2 claims\r\nand suits in civil procedure. Among them, 1 claim for protection of honor,\r\ndignity and business reputation.

The following charges were filed\r\nsince the beginning of the year:

- 27 criminal charges.

- 48\r\nclaims and suits in civil procedure.

Among\r\nthem, 42 claims and lawsuits for protection of honor, dignity and business\r\nreputation.

- Claims\r\nfor compensation for non-pecuniary damage amounted to 71 million 500 thousand\r\ntenge. The courts collected 2 million 290  thousand tenge.

- 15 – administrative offence charge.

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