Let's protect female journalists!
The International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech Adil Soz and the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan made an Appeal to the country's supreme state bodies regarding the persecution and harassment of female journalists. Read it, and sens a message to info@adilsoz.kz if you agree to sign it.
On November 25, we will send the Appeal with all signatures to addressees and international organizations that protect freedom of expression.
To the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.Tokayev
To the GeneralProsecutor of the Republic of Kazakhstan B.Asylov
To the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan M.Akhmetzhanov
To the Minister of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan D.Kydyrali
APPEAL
We are to alert you to the unacceptable situation with the sophisticated persecution of female journalists and to demand to take immediate effective measures for its lawful resolution.
Since August, the editor of the ElMedia YouTube channel, Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, has been under a massive psychological attack. Unknown persons posted her photo on various porn websites, hundreds of insulting messages and direct threats to life come to her personal and editorial phones. On the night of November 23, the editorial office was attacked for the fourth time in the last two months. Once again unknown people smashed the front door of the business center where the media office is located. Who knows how long the owner of the building will tolerate such vandalism and what are the chances that a popular independent media will not end up on the street as a result.
For the editors of the independent online news media Orda.kz the morning of October 4 began with threats written on the playground under the windows of the editorial office. The next day, the threatening inscriptions became more specific. On the evening of October 5, a pig's head was delivered to the office of the Orda.kz in Almaty. A torn photograph of the editor-in-chief Gulnar Bazhkenova was in its mouth.
In both cases, the police gives promises to find the perpetrators and asks "not to raise hell", but the situation is only getting worse.
In July 2022, Olesya Vertinskaya, a Road Control news website reporter, was beaten in Atyrau. After that disinformation about her as of a woman of the street was spread in social networks. The police quickly found the villain that had raised his hand to the woman, but the investigation is still being red taped, as some experts consider the concussion and nose fracture that Vertinskaya suffered as a result of the attack to be “light bodily harm.” Nobody is investigating cyberbullying against female journalists.
We believe that the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs should take special control over the investigation of each case of a violation of the safety of female journalists. A specific action plan is needed in accordance with UN Human Rights Council Resolution 33/2 on the safety of journalists. Lawlessness and impunity for crimes against journalists hamper the implementation of democratic reforms in the country and undermine the image of Kazakhstan as a rule-of-law and democratic state.
Tamara Kaleyeva, President of the International Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech "Adil Soz"
Seitkazy Matayev, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan
