Violations of Freedom of Speech in Kazakhstan April 2022

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 April 2022.

Itreports:

- The bill \"On\r\nAmendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts on the Protection of the\r\nRights of the Child, Education, Information and Informatization\" has been\r\nsubmitted to the President for signature.

As it was reported the initial noble idea of\r\nthe bill was to protect children from kiberbulling. But it implied so many\r\nrestrictions that freedom of expression was put at threat. The authors of the\r\nbill, MPs Aidos Sarym and Dinara Zakieva, gave the authorized body (the\r\nministry of information and public development - MIPD) the right  to restrict or suspend the work of websites,\r\nsocial networks and instant messengers at its own discretion access .

The Senate (the upper chamber of the\r\nParliament), where the bill was sent after unanimous approval by the Mazhilis\r\n(the lower chamber of the Parliament), limited this arbitrariness. It\r\nproposed,  to create an expert commission\r\nto define cyberbullying, and to delete cyberbullying content only.

On April 20, the Mazhilis adopted those\r\namendments. At the same time, Mazhilis speaker Yerlan Koshanov bowed and\r\nscraped before Aidos Sarym and Dinara Zakieva, who made hard efforts to tighten\r\ncontrol over the public Internet.

The rules that the owners of Facebook,\r\nInstagram, LinkedIn and other popular resources must appoint their\r\nrepresentatives and within 24 hours delete content that MIPD recognized  as cyberbullying have been preserved.

- Parliament\r\nintroduced new rules of conduct for media. \r\nJournalists view those rule as restricting their work in parliament. The\r\nUnion of Journalists of Kazakhstan and the International Foundation for the\r\nProtection of Freedom of Speech \"Adil Soz\" addressed the Speakers of\r\nboth chambers of the Parliament and the Minister of Information and Social\r\nDevelopment with an open letter \"On the inadmissibility of restricting the\r\nwork of journalists in Parliament.\"

The letter\r\nsays:

The\r\ndeputies of the Mazhilis (lower chamber) and the Senate of the Parliament once\r\nagain decided to teach journalists communication standards when interacting\r\nwith the deputies. The new rules of conduct for journalists in the parliament\r\nhave been adopted for this purpose,” explained Yedil Zhanbyrshin, Mazhilis\r\ndeputy and the initiator of the rules. Other MPs supported the idea. 

According\r\nto the deputies observing communication standards assumes that journalists are\r\nNOT able to:

- show the\r\npublic deputies during parliamentary sessions (now cameramen and photographers\r\ncan work in the meeting room for the first 10 minutes of the session only). It\r\nturns out that earlier cameramen obstructed the MPs work on the bills. Besides\r\n10 minutes – is the time when MPs are able \r\nto sit still without looking at their mobile phones and without yawning;\r\n

- to\r\ninterview MPs individually (now journalists will crowd around a single  microphone behind a red ribbon). That gives\r\nan excellent opportunity to “mishear” \r\nunpleasant questions;

- run after\r\nthe deputies, trying to catch them at the elevators and in the buffets in\r\nattempts to get information. Now MPs don’t have to hide from microphones, they\r\ncan simply pass by, as if there are no media around.

The Upper\r\nHouse of Parliament went even further in forcing journalists to follow\r\ncommunication standards. The Senate press center was moved to the basement,\r\nwhere there is no mobile connection, there are not enough working space, but a\r\nlot of various smells from the nearby canteen.

We would\r\nlike to remind the respected deputies the words of the President of the country\r\nK. Tokayev said in his recent Address “New Kazakhstan: the path of renewal and\r\nmodernization”: “The state will pay special attention to the creation of an\r\nopen information space, popular and strong media. Media represents an effective\r\nchannel of communication between the authorities and the people, so media can\r\nand should raise pressing issues.”

We believe\r\nthat adopting these rules is a manifestation of disrespect for media as a\r\npublic institution that performs the most important social functions, and for\r\njournalists as media employees. We ask you to cancel the new rules as limiting\r\nthe right of the public to receive reliable information and preventing\r\npromoting of the public’s trust in the authorities».

On April\r\n19, Senate spokesperson Daniyar Ramazanov shared the good news - the Senate\r\npress center was moved back to its original location.

He assured\r\nthat  briefings would be held in the hall\r\nnear the meeting room, and the technical service is already setting the  equipment on the site.

- The investigation\r\ninto the assassination attempt on journalist Amangeldy Batyrbekov has been\r\nextended until the end of May.

Five people\r\nare targeted in the investigation, including assassin\'s paymaster, the middlemаn and three assassins.

According\r\nto investigators, the suspected assassin\'s paymaster  is Bauyrzhan Mayrikhov, who was the head of\r\nthe education department of the Saryagash district of the Turkestan region.

Sabyrkhodzha\r\nMoldakhodzhaev, born in 1985 is suspected of finding and hiring assassins.\r\nAccording to Ratel.kz, he has been  a\r\npracticing psychologist in the Saryagash region for a long time.

Three\r\nresidents of the region - Abdukhamid Kuandykov, born in 1988, Meirzhan\r\nDosbolov, born in 1996, Nurgali Kydyraliev, born in 2000 are are targeted in\r\nthe investigation as suspects in the assassination attempt. They are charged\r\nnot only with contracted murder attempt but with illegal keeping of weapons as\r\nwell.

As it was\r\nreported, that the attempted murder of Amangeldy Batyrbekov took place on the\r\nnight of January 4 in the city of Saryagash. Unidentified people opened fire\r\nand wounded Batyrbekov\'s son Dinmukhamed near the house of the editor of the\r\nnewspaper \"Saryagash info\" .

- The investigation on\r\nInterfering with legal professional activity of Khabar-24 TV journalists was\r\ndropped and resumed for the third time .

 “The police quietly dropped the case on April 4\r\nunder Article 35, Part 1, Clause 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the\r\nRepublic of Kazakhstan - due to the absence of a criminal event. They even\r\ndidn\'t tell me anything. Well, the score is 2 : 2 Two times the case was\r\ndropped by the prosecutor\'s office, twice by the police. I have already got\r\nused to this Yo-Yo. I wonder what will be the final score, or this lawlessness\r\nis endless. How much can you bring the score to, eh, Prosecutor’s Office of the\r\nNothern Kazakhstan Region?” Tolegen Imanov, the affected cameraman of the\r\nKhabar 24 TV channel, wrote on Facebook.

Some time\r\nafter the information was posted in social networks, the prosecutor\'s office of\r\nthe North Kazakhstan region canceled the decision to drop the pre-trial\r\ninvestigation.

The following charges\r\nwere filed in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of\r\nexpression in April\r\n2022:

- 1 criminal charge (0\r\nin court)

- 2 civil claims and\r\nlawsuits (1 of them for protection of honor, dignity and business reputation).

- 1 administrative\r\ncharge

The following charges\r\nwere filed since the beginning of the year:

- 11 criminal charges (3\r\nin court).

- 10 claims and suits\r\nin civil procedure (9 of them for protection of honor, dignity and business\r\nreputation).

Claims for compensation\r\nfor non-pecuniary damage amounted to 6 million 450 thousand  tenge. The courts collected 500 thousand\r\ntenge.

- 11 administrative\r\ncharges, including 7 related to January riots

The monitoring is based\r\non the reports of the Adil Soz Foundation\'s and publicly available information

Head of monitoring\r\nservice of Adil Soz Foundation

Elena Tsoi e-mail:\r\nlena@adilsoz.kz

For all monitoring\r\nquestions, you can also contact info@adilsoz.kz