(Adil Soz/IFEX) – The Culture, Information and Sport Ministry has launched a lawsuit against the Bastau company, which owns the newly established “Respublika Analiticheskiy Yezhenedelnik” (“Respublika Analytical Weekly”) newspaper, demanding that the company be liquidated. The suit was launched after the newspaper published transcripts of an interview given by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Russian parliament’s (Duma) […]
(Adil Soz/IFEX) – The Culture, Information and Sport Ministry has launched a lawsuit against the Bastau company, which owns the newly established “Respublika Analiticheskiy Yezhenedelnik” (“Respublika Analytical Weekly”) newspaper, demanding that the company be liquidated. The suit was launched after the newspaper published transcripts of an interview given by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Russian parliament’s (Duma) vice-speaker and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), to Radio Echo Moscvy (Radio Echo of Moscow). The transcripts of the interview were published on 20 January 2005, in the newspaper’s first issue. In the interview, Zhirinovsky was highly critical of the way Kazakhstan’s statehood and the nation’s cultural and historical values are developing.
In a preface to the published interview, the newspaper’s editorial staff wrote that Zhirinovsky’s statements are reason to rethink the future relationship between Russia and Kazakhstan. According to the Culture, Information and Sport Ministry, the newspaper published material promoting the superiority of one nation over another and inciting national enmity, harming the unity of the Kazakhstani peoples and insulting the honour and dignity of the Kazakh nation.
Bastau owns “Respublika Analiticheskiy Yezhenedelnik” and another well-known opposition newspaper, “Respublika Delovoye Obzreniye” (“Respublika Business Review”). If Bastau is liquidated, its newspapers will also be shut down.
Concurrently, a private citizen, Boris Godunov, filed another lawsuit against Bastau for publishing a photograph of him in “Respublika” newspaper. The photo was published on 17 September 2004, with the caption, “Opposition did the most important thing – it showed the true face of Kazakhstan’s authorities”. The article was entitled, “Scene before the battle”.
In his lawsuit, Godunov said the photo might cause readers to think of him as an opposition supporter, when he is actually an active proponent of the president’s political direction. Godunov cited the photo’s publication as a violation of Article 145 of Kazakhstan’s Civil Code, which covers a person’s “right to image” and stipulates that photos of a person should only be published with that person’s consent. Godunov is seeking 150 billion tenge (approx. US$1,153 million) in compensation.
