The International Foundation for the Protection of\r\nFreedom of Speech \"Adil Soz\" conducted a study of the situation with\r\nthe right to freedom of expression, receipt and dissemination of information in\r\nKazakhstan in December 2020.
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It reports:
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- The Central Election\r\nCommittee adopted a resolution that defines the rights and obligations of the\r\ncandidates \' proxies, observers and media representatives. The ruling was\r\ncriticised by NGOs, civil society activists and journalists. They believe that\r\nthe document seriously restricts the possibility of independent monitoring of\r\nthe elections.
\r\nOn 4 December, the Central election Committee\r\n(CEC) of Kazakhstan published a resolution \"On exercise of powers of\r\ncertain categories of participants of the \r\nprocess of the election of deputies of the Mazhilis of Parliament and\r\nmaslikhats of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scheduled for 10 January 2021\".\r\nThe document defines the rights and obligations of the candidates \' proxies,\r\nobservers and media representatives.
\r\nThe ruling was criticized by NGOs, civil\r\nsociety activists and journalists. They believe that the document seriously restricts\r\nthe possibility of independent monitoring of the elections.
\r\nEarlier any non-profit organization could send\r\ntheir representatives to observe the elections. Now they will be able to do so\r\nonly if this type of activity is determined by the charter of the organization\r\nand is associated with its goals. Supporting documents must be submitted to the\r\nrelevant election commissions.
\r\nAlso, the resolution says that only officially\r\nregistered media can make live broadcasting of the elections:\"the\r\nlegislation does not allow online video broadcasting from polling\r\nstations.\" Irina Mednikova, the program coordinator of the media\r\norganization Internews, believes that it was done to ban live broadcasts in social networks.
\r\nThe resolution also demands to get the consent\r\nof a person to use his\\her image.
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- Bloggers were summoned to the\r\nprosecutor\'s office for a talk related to publishing polls results on social\r\nnetworks and messengers on the eve of the upcoming elections.
\r\n- Independent journalist and blogger Makhambet\r\nAbzhan was summoned to the district prosecutor\'s office of Nur-Sultan because\r\nof a survey conducted in November in the Telegram channel Abzhan News. The\r\nblogger asked his subscribers one question – \" Which political party would\r\nyou vote for if there were no fraud?\".
\r\nThe Prosecutor pointed to the article of the\r\nelectoral law, that states that such polls can be conducted only by legal\r\nentities having five years experience in conducting surveys and being\r\napproved by the Central election\r\nCommission.
\r\nThe prosecutor also warned Makhambet Abzhan\r\nabout administrative responsibility for violating the electoral legislation.
\r\n- On November 12, 2020, Nasima Korganbekova, a blogger from Pavlodar,\r\nposted the results of an electoral survey conducted by an NGO accredited in the\r\nCentral Election Commission on her Facebook page. \"I didn\'t take any side,\r\nI didn\'t campaign, I didn\'t make PR to the parties,\" says Nasima. On\r\nDecember 21, the blogger was summoned to the prosecutor\'s office. A public\r\nprosecutor made claims against that post. According to the blogger, the\r\nprosecutor took her testimony and warned her against breaking the electoral legislation.
\r\n- On December 22 blogger Kairat Abdrahman was summoned by WhatsApp to the Prosecutor\'s\r\noffice of Taldykorgan to talk about the survey, posted on the social network\r\n\"Vkontakte\" on 9 November 2020. The survey about the upcoming\r\nelections to the Mazhilis of Parliament and maslikhats became the reason for\r\nadministrative proceedings against Abdrahman for violation of the terms of conducting\r\nelection-related surveys (article 120 h.\r\n3 of the Administrative code). On December 24, \r\nTaldykorgan specialized inter-district administrative court fined\r\nblogger Kairat Abdrakhman for 41670\r\ntenge.
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- President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the\r\nlaw \"On Amendments and additions to certain legislative Acts of the\r\nRepublic of Kazakhstan on information issues\".
\r\nEarlier the Minister of Information and Public\r\nDevelopment Aida Balayeva noted that the amendments were aimed at addressing\r\ntwo main issues - strengthening control and responsibility and expanding the\r\nscope of application of the law.
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- On December 6, various foreign information sites and social networks\r\nwere unavailable to residents of Nur-Sultan. It was explained by\r\n\"Cybersecurity Nur-Sultan-2020\" training. Users were asked to install\r\na security certificate if they wanted to get access to foreign web-sites.\r\nAccording to experts ,the \"security certificate\" gives access to the user\'s personal data to third\r\nparties.
\r\nOn December 7, representatives of the Ministry\r\nof Digital Development and Aerospace Industry (ICRIAP) and the National\r\nSecurity Committee acknowledged at a briefing in Nur-Sultan, that the MITM\r\n(man-in-the-middle) technology is used in the Kazakhstan certificate.
\r\n\"We are aware that 70 percent of all traffic is encrypted. And\r\nit is impossible to monitor the traffic in order to block the prohibited\r\ncontent without this technology, \" said Ramil Bektemirov, a representative\r\nof the State Technical Service of the KNB.
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- Pavlodar Regional Police Department started a criminal investigation\r\nagainst a journalist that wrote an article about police state purchases
\r\nThe police Department initiated a pre-trial\r\ncriminal investigation against Ratel.kz reporter Olga Voronko. The journalist\r\nwas recognized is a witness with the right to a defense. The criminal case was\r\ninitiated on a claim filed by a\r\n21-year-old owner of SECURITY FACTORY LLP. He claims that Voronko spread\r\ninformation about his private life that constitutes his personal or family\r\nsecret in the article telling about the police state purchase \"21-year-old\r\nmillionaire arms the police\" procurement. \r\n
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Three judicial acts was issued against media in connection with the\r\nexercise of the right to freedom of expression , the receipt and dissemination\r\nof information in December 2020. One of them was in\r\n favor of defendants.
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The\r\nfollowing charges were filed in\r\nconnection with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression:
\r\n- 1 criminal charges, none in\r\n court.
\r\n- 2 claims and\r\nsuits in civil procedure. Both were claims for protection of honor, dignity and\r\nbusiness reputation.
\r\n- 3\r\nadministrative charges
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The\r\nfollowing charges were filed since the beginning of the year:
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- 58 criminal charges (including 19 in court).
\r\n- 35 administrative\r\ncharges (including 4 slander charges and 3 for violating electoral survey\r\nregulations)
\r\n- 62 claims and suits in civil procedure.
\r\nAmong them, 54\r\nclaims and lawsuits for protection of honor, dignity and business reputation.
\r\n- Claims for\r\ncompensation for non-pecuniary damage amounted to 79 million 110 thousand tenge. The courts collected 975 thousand 993 tenge.
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The monitoring was done according to reports of the\r\nAdil Soz Foundation\'s
\r\nHead of monitoring service of Adil Soz Foundation
\r\nElena Tsoi
\r\ne-mail: lena@adilsoz.kz
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For all monitoring questions, you\r\ncan also contact info@adilsoz.kz
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