(WAN/IFEX) – The following is an 18 March 2004 WAN and World Editors Forum letter to President Nursultan Nazarbaev: Nursultan Nazarbaev President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Office of the President 11 Mira Street Astana, 473000 Kazakhstan Fax: +7-3172-323-073 18 March 2004 Your Excellency, We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is an 18 March 2004 WAN and World Editors Forum letter to President Nursultan Nazarbaev:
Nursultan Nazarbaev
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Office of the President
11 Mira Street
Astana, 473000
Kazakhstan
Fax: +7-3172-323-073
18 March 2004
Your Excellency,
We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 101 countries, to express our grave concern at the approval of a new media law by Parliament today, and to encourage you to reject the law in its current state.
According to reports, the draft law would require compulsory registration, licensing and accreditation of media with agencies which would not be considered independent of the government. It also contains provisions concerning access to information that are vaguely defined and open to abuse by any government seeking to suppress criticism.
The latest version of the law has new provisions, which further breach the right to freedom of expression, such as an excessively broad prohibition on ‘pre-judging trials’, which we believe extends far beyond what is necessary to protect trial fairness. In addition, the law would allow for the accreditation of journalists to be withdrawn for publishing material considered to degrade the honour and dignity of government agencies, public associations and organizations that accredited them.
We are deeply concerned that, if you ratify the draft media law, the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression would be jeopardised in Kazakhstan.
We believe that the introduction of this law would represent a major setback for media freedom and freedom of expression in Kazakhstan, and respectfully remind you that several provisions of the draft law fail to respect international standards of freedom of expression, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which you ratified in December 2003.
We respectfully call on you to reject the draft law, and instead, to put in place a process for reform of existing laws which restrict freedom of expression, in accordance with Article 19 of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Seok Hyun Hong
President
World Association of Newspapers
Gloria Brown Anderson
President
World Editors Forum
