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 June 2021.
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Itreports:
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- On May 26, 2021 Kokshetau 716.kz news website reporter Oksana Matasova filed a claim to\r\npolice under Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan\r\n\"Interfering with legal professional activities of a journalist.\"\r\nThough criminal charges were dropрed. The journalists\'s lawyer appealed against that decision.
\r\nAs we reported, one of the residents of Kokshetau told\r\nthe news website \"716.kz\" that her 14-year-old son was hired for\r\nbeautification of the city lake Kopa along with other minors. No contract was\r\nsigned with them and the teenager were not paid for their work.
\r\nOn May 26,\r\n2021, 716.k reporter Oksana Matasova informed the inspector for juvenile\r\naffairs and went to the riverbank to check the information and to take\r\nemployers\' comments. When she arrived at the riverbank, she saw children on the\r\nbeach, came to them and tried to talk. At this time, she started to make a\r\nvideo on her mobile phone as it is allowed in accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 20 of the Law\r\n\"On the Mass Media\". The young workers were laconic and called\r\nsomeone they named Ruslan. A man came to\r\nOksana and greeted her. But as soon as he learnt that she is a journalist, his\r\nbehavior turned to be agressive. He knocked out the camera from the\r\njournalist\'s hands, pushed and cursed the journalist, forcing her to leave the\r\nplace of works.
\r\nOn the same day, the journalist reported the incident\r\nto the police, stating that the man\r\nviolated paragraph 2 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of\r\nKazakhstan \"Interfering with legal professional activity of a\r\njournalist\" with the use of violence or threat, clause 2 of article 131 of\r\nthe Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan \"Insult\", and art. 434\r\nof the Administrative Code \"Petty hooliganism\" (obscene language in\r\npublic places). However, on June 7, the investigative authority dropped the\r\ncriminal charges. He man was charged with art. 434 of the Administrative Code\r\n\"Petty hooliganism\" only and was fined for 14,500 tenge (about 35 USD)
\r\nOn June 9, the prosecutor\'s office of the city of\r\nKokshetau agreed with the decision to drop charges under Art. 158 of the\r\nCriminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the absence of corpus delicti.
\r\n“When a representative of the prosecutor’s office\r\ncalled me I asked him why there was no evidence of a crime in the case. He\r\nreplied that the man was not aware that I am a journalist since I introdiced\r\nmyself orally . On the same day, June 9, I was received by the head of the\r\npolice department of Akmola region, General Armanbek Baimurzin. He accepted my claim and ordered\r\nto restart the investigation, ”O. Matasova explained.
\r\nOn June 10, 2021 the journalist\'s lawyer also filed a\r\npetition with the Akmola region prosecutor\'s office. He asked to cancel the\r\ndecision on dropping criminal charges and to resume the pre-trial\r\ninvestigation. He noted that operative part of the decision does not coincide\r\nwith the content of the criminal case. In particular, the investigation papers\r\ncontain the testimonies of underage\r\nwitnesses, which indicate directly to\r\nthe facts of violation of public order\r\nby Ruslan and prove that his actions constituted interfering with journalistic activities, and insult i.e. corpus delicti as it stated by Criminal Code\r\nof the Republic of Kazakhstan. Besides the investigative authority did not take\r\nvideo evidence from O.Matasova, thereby violating Art. 24 of the Criminal\r\nProcedure Code of the Republic of\r\nKazakhstan that demands a complete and objective study of all case materials.
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- The editor-in-chief of \"Ak Zhaiyk\" is\r\nthreatened with death.
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The newspaper \"Ak\r\nZhaiyk\" sent an official letter to Khamza Umbetkaliyev, the head of the\r\nDepartment of Internal Affairs of Atyrau. The journalists requested to identify\r\nan Internet user with the nickname \" Satan \"and to bring him to\r\ncriminal responsibility under Article 115 of the Criminal Code of the Republic\r\nof Kazakhstan\"Threat\". That user as well as many others, individually or in groups periodically\r\nthreaten the life and health of the newspaper\'s journalists, as well as the\r\nlife and health the editor Azamat Maitanov and his family personally.
\r\nThe journalists called the\r\nDepartment of internal affairs for many times to ask if the Internet user that\r\nthreatened them was found, but that gave no results in spite of the fact\r\n\"Ak Zhaiyk\" indicated the IP-address of the abuser in its application.
\r\n\"Threats are very\r\nfrequent,\" the newspaper editor says. – Many people want to retaliate\r\nagainst our newspaper. Among them are major ex-officials who are under arrest,\r\nand their henchmen, law enforcement officers, administrative officials, who are\r\noften hindered by the newspaper. Threats with calls for reprisals against\r\n\"Ak Zhaiyk\" also come from pro-Russian readers, commonly called\r\n\"quilted jackets\", i.e. people who dream of restoring the Soviet era.\r\nPeriodically, authorities \"advise\" not to cover political processes,\r\nnot to report any information about the disgraced Bergey Ryskaliyev, the\r\nex-akim of the Atyrau region in 2006-2012, still popular among residents.
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- Journalists of Kazakhstan appealed to the President of the country\r\nwith a demand to remove the veil of secrecy from the government work on the\r\ndraft law \"On Mass Communication\".
\r\nJournalistic\r\norganizations and media leaders appealed to the President of the country in\r\norder to remove the veil of secrecy from the government\'s work on the draft law\r\n\"On Mass Communication\". Journalists are worried that \"the\r\ndevelopment of the law that will regulate the activities of media, is being\r\ncarried out by the Ministry of Information and Social Development without the\r\nparticipation of civil society, almost secretly from the media and journalistic\r\norganizations.\"
\r\n\"The new law of\r\nthe 21st century should contain the real mechanisms to guarantee of freedom of\r\nspeech stipulated by the Constitution of the country. It should comply with the\r\ninternational pacts and agreements ratified by Kazakhstan, and not to toughen\r\ncontroll, prohibitive and punitive functions of the state,\" the appeal\r\nsays. The appealers propose close cooperation of the state bodies and\r\nnongovernmental sector, sicne the latter has a large practical baggage of\r\nexpert research on legislation and law enforcement practice in the field of mass\r\nmedia.
\r\nJournalistic\r\norganizations are asking for the assistance of the head of state to ensure that\r\nthe law on mass media is drafted openly and collectively, with participation of\r\nrepresentatives of civil society and journalists.
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- The court sustained the claim of Bauyrzhan Baybek, the first deputy\r\nchairman of the ruling party Nur Otan, \r\nagainst civil activist Zhanbolat Mamai and his wife Inga Imanbai, and ruled\r\nthat they should delete the video\r\ninvestigation about the ex-akim (ex-mayor) of Almaty from the Internet. Defendants\r\nwill appeal the ruling.
\r\nOn June 15, R.\r\nSartaeva, judge of the Auezov District Court No. 2 of Almaty, satisfied the claim to protect the honor,\r\ndignity and business reputation of Bauyrzhan Baybek, the former akim (mayor) of\r\nAlmaty and first deputy chairman of the Nur Otan party, against civil activist\r\nZhanbolat Mamai and his wife Inga Imanbai.
\r\nThe court admitted the\r\ncontroversial episodes of the video investigations telling about creating\r\nbusiness empire of the ex-akim of Almaty\r\nofficial Baurzhan Baibek, published by the defendants on YouTube on the\r\nDemocratic Kazakhstan channel and on the Facebook social network from April 10\r\nto 13, 2021, constitute untrue information defaming the honor and dignity of\r\nthe plaintiff. The court ordered the defendants to completely remove the\r\nvideo within 10 calendar days after the\r\ncourt decision comes into legal force.
\r\nBesides, Zh. Mamai and\r\nI. Imanbai must reimburse Baybek for court costs in the amount of 438,201\r\nthousand tenge each and expenses for \r\nforensic psychological and philological examination in the amount of\r\n75,114.60 tenge.
\r\nZhanbolat Mamay and\r\nInga Imanbai do not agree with the court\'s ruling and are going to appeal it.
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11 \r\njudicial acts was issued against\r\nmedia in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression ,\r\nthe receipt and dissemination of information in June 2021. Five of them were \r\nin favor of defendants.
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The following\r\ncharges were filed in connection with\r\nthe exercise of the right to freedom of expression:
\r\n- 1\r\ncriminal charge (none in court)
\r\n- 11 civil claims and lawsuits (all of them for\r\nprotection of honor, dignity and business reputation).
\r\n- 2 administrative charges
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The\r\nfollowing charges were filed since the beginning of the year:
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- 15 criminal charge (7 in court).
\r\n- 38 claims and suits in civil procedure (36 of\r\nthem for protection of honor, dignity and business reputation).
\r\nClaims for\r\ncompensation for non-pecuniary damage amounted to 20 million 500 thousand tenge. The courts collected\r\n740 thousand tenge.
\r\n- 19 administrative\r\ncharges
\r\nThe monitoring is based on the reports of the Adil Soz\r\nFoundation\'s and publicly available information
\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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