Facebook account of Legal Media Center lawyer Gulmira Birzhanova blocked

The Facebook account of Gulmira Birzhanova, Head of the Media Qoldau service at the Legal Media Center Public Foundation, has been blocked.

Despite an appeal submitted to Meta, the company has so far provided no explanation for the suspension, Radio Azattyq reported.

Several days earlier, the Facebook account of Legal Media Center Director Diana Okremova was also blocked. At the time, the platform said the restriction was triggered by a complaint alleging “third-party copyright infringement” and a violation of its terms concerning intellectual property.

Okremova, however, wrote that her account had been blocked after she published a post about court proceedings against Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and Information. The Adil Soz Foundation drew attention to the case and called for the blocking to stop.

The organisation’s Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as its YouTube channel, had also previously been subjected to restrictions.

Representatives of the organisation do not rule out the possibility that these actions may constitute pressure on members of the media community ahead of the elections.

On 17 August, international organisations concerned about increasing pressure on independent media — the International Foundation “Adil Soz”, Araminta, Civil Rights Defenders, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Crude Accountability, Freedom For Eurasia, International Partnership for Human Rights, the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee — sent an appeal to the Kazakhstani authorities calling for an end to pressure on independent journalists.