Jokes are not out of law

On May 15,  the house of Temirlan Ensebek, the administrator of the satirical Instagram public Qaznews24 was searched by police. After that, Temirlan was taken to the police station, where he was interrogated for five hours. The grounds for that was the investigation of the case of “dissemination of deliberately false information” (Article 274 of the Criminal Code). Temirlan Ensebek was qualified as  a protected witness. He was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

"Adil Soz" comments:

Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan has nothing to do with satire and humor. It deals with information that creates a public danger or causes significant harm to the rights and legitimate interests of citizens or organizations and to the interests of society protected by law.

Tamerlan Ensebek's post on the Internet were accompanied by notes: “Humorous fake news, satirical context. Any coincidence with people and events is an absolute coincidence. " But the police seems to be unfamiliar with such concepts as "humor" and "satire". It also looks as if the police do not know well the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which guarantees freedom of speech and creative activities (Article 20).

Freedom of creative activities is an integral part of freedom of speech. It is the natural right of the author to choose the themes of his works, artistic methods, techniques and principles. International human rights covenants identify freedom of expression as one of the main aspects of cultural rights. This means the freedom to seek, receive and disseminate any information and ideas in artistic form, the right to enjoy the art and creative activities of others, and the obligation of states to respect the freedom necessary for creative activity.