Journalism should serve the society, not bureaucrats

A round table "Legal framework of freedom of speech: yesterday, today, tomorrow"was held in Almaty this morning. We talked mainly about the draft amendments to the rules of accreditation of journalists, born in the Ministry of information and communications and adopted by the new Ministry of information and social development.

Fifty journalists unanimously and variously argued that the proposals limit the right to receive and disseminate information. Representatives of the other side, namely the Deputy Chairman of the Committee of information of the Ministry of information and public development Mikhail Komissarov and the first Deputy Director of RSE "Center for Analysis and Information" Shaiken Makazhan tried to convince the participants that the proposals are not so bad, that journalists didn’t get them right, that the rules can still be improved, but overall the amendments as are inevitable.

A rresolution was adopted after the discussion. The officials did not argue (as they were in the absolute minority), but Mikhail pointed out that the phrase " the Ministry of information and communications reposed in the Lord " was too rude, and it should be put mildly.  His desire will be taken into account in the text, which will be sent tomorrow to the newborn authorized state body. Now we publish the Resolution in its original form. If you agree with it, sign it and send it to the ministry by yourself. 

I will only add that during the round table we learned how the Ministry plans to improve the law on the media and were shocked. But we will tell about it in our next message and here is the text of the Resolution:

"We, the participants of the round table "Legal framework of freedom of speech: yesterday, today, tomorrow", after having analyzed the local situation with the implementation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression, receipt and dissemination of information, have to admit the validity of low ratings of Kazakhstan concerning the level of freedom of speech.

Kazakhstan was on of  the top 15 countries with the worst laws on access to information, ranked 158 out of 180 in the index of freedom of speech, classified as non-free countries in the index of Internet freedom. Monitoring of violations of freedom of speech by the "Adil Soz" foundation annually records dozens of criminal and civil cases that are brought against journalists and the media in connection with their professional activities. Journalists are detained when thy are covering socially important events, they receive formal answers to their request of information, new barriers are being created to prevent prompt coverage of the real situation that constitute the essence of journalism.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of information and communications, established less than three years ago and reposed in the Lord already, became not an ally, but an opponent to the journalistic community. The Ministry feeding the obedient media and increasing their number under the veil of secrecy of the distribution of funds of the state order, issued a series of documents tightening the supervision of the media and expanding the possibilities of their punishment. The odious amendments to the media law at the end of 2017 significantly worsened the situation with access to information and the possibility of investigative journalism. Every year independent editions are closed, journalists are deprived of the right to work in their profession.

The changes proposed by the Ministry to the accreditation rules are actually aimed at finally turning journalists into servants of officials. The Ministry has long promised to work on a fundamentally new law on mass media but does this work without public participation and its first results are the proposals to legalize the right to be forgotten and a preventive ban on publication that contradicts the fight against corruption in our society.

We, the participants of the round table, having discussed the current situation, express our protest against the unconstitutional restrictions of freedom of speech.

We are for the free receipt and distribution of any information that is not restricted by law.

Society has the right to know, to criticize and to discuss.

Down with bureaucratic obstacles to free speech! Journalism should serve society, not officials.

We demand to reject the reactionary draft of the order of the Ministry of information and communications " on changing the rules of accreditation»

We demand to ensure open, collegial and transparent work on the new media law at all stages of its creation."