(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 9 August 2000 letter to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, CPJ expressed its outrage over his government’s apparent efforts to shut down the independent newspapers “SolDat” and “Vremya Po” for reprinting articles from foreign media about alleged corruption in the Kazakh government. In June and early July of this year, according to CPJ […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 9 August 2000 letter to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, CPJ expressed its outrage over his government’s apparent efforts to shut down the independent newspapers “SolDat” and “Vremya Po” for reprinting articles from foreign media about alleged corruption in the Kazakh government.
In June and early July of this year, according to CPJ sources, both papers reprinted stories from respected international publications alleging that top Kazakh government officials, including President Nazarbayev, had accepted massive bribes from American and Russian businessmen in exchange for favorable contracts to reprocess iron and aluminum ore and to develop oil fields in the Kazakh part of the Caspian Sea.
On 17 July, acting on a complaint that was apparently filed by one of the newspaper’s readers, the Almaty prosecutor’s office opened a criminal-defamation case against Yermurat Bapi and Argyngazy Madiyanov, respectively editor-in-chief and director of the opposition weekly “SolDat” (formerly “Dat”). Bapi and Madiyanov are accused of insulting President Nazarbayev by reprinting two articles about high-level corruption in Kazakhstan from the Web sites of the U.S.-based “Fortune” magazine and the Italian newspaper “Corrierre della Sera”. The case is now being investigated by the local department of the National Security Committee.
Two weeks earlier, the prosecutor’s office notified “SolDat” that it was launching an investigation into the newspaper’s allegedly defamatory 30 May article “Decembrists accuse Nazarbayev,” which “SolDat” had reprinted from the Web site of the Information Analytical Center Eurasia (www.eurasia.org.ru). The article held the president responsible for violent ethnic clashes in the former Kazakh capital, Almaty, in December 1986.
The next day, Kazakh customs officials seized the newspaper’s entire print run at the Russian-Kazakh border and arrested Bapi, who was accompanying the shipment. The editor was held in custody for a few hours and then released.
“SolDat” had been printing in Russia for about a month, ever since local printing companies started refusing to print the paper, allegedly under pressure from Kazakh authorities. Even this will be impossible if customs officials continue to block the paper from being imported.
According to CPJ’s local sources, the investigators have frozen the newspaper’s bank accounts. As a result, on 10 July, “SolDat”‘s entire staff was placed on indefinite unpaid leave. The newspaper’s publication is currently suspended.
In a separate incident, another Almaty newspaper, the Russian/English-language biweekly “Vremya Po”, has come under similar pressure. On 6 July, the newspaper’s regular printer, the state-owned company Dauir, refused to continue printing “Vremya Po” on the grounds that the paper had an overdue balance. However, local sources told CPJ that the real reason behind the refusal was that government officials had pressured Dauir to stop printing “Vremya Po” after 3 July, when the paper reprinted articles on the corruption scandal that had already appeared in “Newsweek” and “The Wall Street Journal”. Ever since, the paper has only been able to publish on the Internet.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– protesting his government’s blatant harassment of the independent press in Kazakhstan
– noting that the freedom to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media,” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is essential to the development of a healthy political system
– suggesting that there is no possible justification for censoring legitimate news coverage simply because it happens to be critical of His Excellency’s government
– urging him to ensure that “SolDat” and “Vremya Po” are allowed to resume publishing, and to create an atmosphere in which all journalists may work without fear of reprisal
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev
President of Kazakhstan
Beibitshlik Street 11
Astana, Kazakhstan 473000
Fax: +7 3172 32 72 74
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
