Violations of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan July 2023

5 august 2023

The International Foundation for Freedom of Speech Protection «Adil Soz» presents an overview of events reflecting the situation in Kazakhstan with freedom of expression, receipt and dissemination of information in July 2023.

On June 27, 2020, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law «On Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Improving Enforcement Proceedings and Criminal Legislation», according to which defamation (Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan) was transferred from the Criminal Code to the Code of Administrative Offences (Article 73-3 of the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offences).

Since the decriminalization of defamation, the monitoring by the «Adil Soz» Foundation has recorded a total of 35 pre-trial and court proceedings related to defamation. Eight individuals, including bloggers, civil activists, and social media users, have been fined and subjected to administrative arrests by court decisions.

The arrest of a journalist for defamation was only recorded by the «Adil Soz» Foundation in July 2023. The foundation is not aware of any other similar cases.

In July 2023, the chief editor of «S-Inform» Amangeldy Batyrbekov, was sentenced to 20 days of administrative arrest on charges of defamation. The Adil Soz Foundation believes that the key element of defamation, which is «knowingly false information» was not proven or established during the court proceedings. In other words, there was no deliberate falsehood committed by the journalist.

Adil Soz insists on the necessity of reviewing the decisions made by the courts in the Turkestan Region on this case by a higher court instance.

Also in July:

From July to December 2022, Kazakhstan government agencies submitted 71 urgent requests to Google for information disclosure, involving 81 accounts.

The report indicates that in 91% of these requests, the company provided some data. In previous years, Kazakhstan had far fewer such requests. During January-June 2022, there were 17 urgent requests (82% of which were satisfied), while in other periods, there were six or fewer requests.

The Ministry of Information and Social Development has presented statistics on officially registered media outlets in Kazakhstan.

Their number, when compared to the data from the Ministry of Information and Social Development in June, increased and reached 5,659 (in June - 5,631). Among them, 3,927 are periodicals (in June - 3,916), 202 are television channels, 88 are radio stations, 627 are news agencies (618 in June), and 522 are online publications (515 in June). The number of foreign media outlets remained unchanged at 293.

On July 10, the President of Kazakhstan signed the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On Online Platforms and Online Advertising» along with accompanying amendments.

The Law «On Online Platforms and Online Advertising» regulates public relations related to online platforms operating within the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as public relations arising in the process of producing, placing, disseminating, and storing online advertising within the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Law introduces concepts such as «account «public community», and its moderator, «influencer (blogger) », «false information» and others. It establishes the legal framework for online advertising and the activities of online platforms.
Amendments and additions to the Code of Administrative Offenses introduce a new article that specifies liability for the dissemination of false information in the media and on internet resources.

At the opening of the monument to Alexander Nevsky in Almaty, security officers used force to prevent Radio Azattyk journalist Meyirim Bakytzhanova from asking a question to akim Erbolat Dosayev.

Several strong men grabbed her and pulled her aside. They held the girl until the akim's car drove away. When the journalist tried to ask questions to vice minister of information and social development Kanat Iskakov, she was seized again. However, the vice minister gave instructions to release the journalist and answered questions.

At present, the editors intend to inform the competent authorities about the incident, but if adequate measures are not taken, the journalists are ready to write a statement to the police regarding obstruction of legitimate professional activities.

The Department of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Civil Service Affairs in the Abai Region is suing Total.kz for phrases-assumptions.

The plaintiff demands to refute the phrase: «Later, rumors began to spread among the residents of Ayagoz that allowed the head of the district to get away with it»: they allegedly «found a common language» with employees of the authorized body in the field of public service (it was about amounts from 5 to 10 million tenge).

On July 11, a court in Almaty refused to satisfy the department's claim for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation against Total Media Qazaqstan LLP and Vasily Smirnov.

The court's decision to dismiss the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the «VK-Media Publishing Group» (Russia) has become legally binding. The plaintiff sought to recover a specific amount from «Uralskya nedelya».

The publishing group demanded compensation in the amount of 100 MCI (318,000 tenge) from the owner of «Uralskaya nedelya» - «Zhurnalistskaya initsiativa» accusing the publication of copyright infringement. The plaintiff alleges that in the publication titled «Five families in Uralsk may lose land plots due to fraudster's actions», published on the website uralskweek.kz on November 10, 2021, a photograph of a «VK-Media» employee was used as an illustration.

According to the plaintiff, this photo was originally published in an article titled «Krasnoturints, suffering from schizophrenia and vandalizing a store's window with an ax will receive treatment» back in July 2013.

In general, in July 2023, 34 reports of incidents related to the professional activities of the media and journalists, the receipt and dissemination of information were registered:

7 reports were related to violations of journalists' rights.
21 reports concerned the right to access and disseminate information.
6 cases of presentation of judicial and pre-trial claims to journalists and editorial offices in connection with publications.

In July 2023, in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the following have been filed:

1 criminal charge (including judicial – 0).
1 pre-judicial claim and 1 civil lawsuit (including 2 related to protection of honor, dignity, and business reputation).
3 administrative charges.

Since the beginning of the year, in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the following have been filed:

5 criminal charges (including 2 in court).
35 civil claims and lawsuits (including 29 for the protection of honor, dignity, and business reputation).

The claimed amounts of compensation for moral damage in cases of honor and dignity protection amount to 12 million tenge. The courts recovered 300 thousand tenge.

12 administrative charges, including 6 for defamation.

The monitoring was prepared according to reports to correspondents of the «Adil Soz» Foundation and information from open sources.
Head of the Monitoring Service of the «Adil Soz» Foundation - Elena Tsoy
Email: lena@adilsoz.kz
For all monitoring-related inquiries, you can also contact: info@adilsoz.kz