A new type of threat or a fraud?

On November 17, the hosting provider that hosts the website of the KazTAG news agency, forwarded a letter to the editorial office from an alleged lawyer representing the interests of Alexander Mashkevich.

“Dear hosting provider,

I am a representative of Alexander Machkevitch.

I am contacting you for the purpose of cooperation in eliminating

infringements of my client’s rights publicly available by the link

attached to this letter. (...) I insist you to remove the publication or block access of third parties to it immediately due to the inflicted harm to the rights of Alexander Machkevitch and breach of law." , - the letter says.

The only legal act the author referrs  to is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He accuses the news agency of disseminating false information, discredit honor and dignity of Mr. Mashkevich, and even attempting to slander. The editorial office of KazTAG did not receive such letters from either Mashkevich or any of his representatives or any pre-trial claims from them. The allegedly deliberately false information was previously published by respected world media, Bloomberg, in particular, .

It is not known whether Bloomberg received such claims, but similar situations has already happened with a number of Kazakh media outlets. Though those ones whose reputation was allegedly discredited, had no complaints and did not ask anyone to defend them. It seems that the Kazakh media are faced with some new type of threat or with a common fraud.