Kazakhstan

In a press conference in Almaty, Tamara Kaleyeva, head of Adil Soz, and local journalist Yermurat Bapi told journalists that charges against Seytkazy Matayev were retaliation for critical reports KazTag and the press club had published ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on 20 March.

Authorities arrested the men in October 2015 in connection with Facebook posts about a text, attributed to another activist, which describes the Kazakh nation in provocative terms. Authorities claimed that the posts contained signs of ‘inciting national discord.’

Police searched the Almaty offices of Nakanune.kz and the homes of Nakanune.kz owner Guzyal Baidalinova and journalists Yulia Kozlova. Almaty police said they have initiated pre-trial investigations against Respublika and Nakanune.kz for allegedly disseminating false information about the activities of Kazkommertsbank.

Bolatbek Blyalov is the third activist in Kazakhstan arrested in the last month on suspicion of “inciting social, national, clan, racial, class, or religious discord,” a vague and overbroad criminal offense, during a crackdown on outspoken government critics.

Police arrested Ermek Narymbaev, a civic activist, and Serikzhan Mambetalin, former head of the Rukhaniyat party, on October 12, after receiving information that “they had circulated material on social media that contains clear signs of inciting national discord [and] insulting national honor and dignity,” according to a police statement.

“The laws would ignore recommendations made in June by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of assembly and association, when he called on Kazakhstan’s government to reduce, not increase, its regulation of civic groups.”

A Kazakh court has ordered the owner of independent news outlet nakanune.kz to remove a letter from its website. The court has also ordered the website’s owner, Guzyal Baidalinova, to pay Kazakhstan’s leading bank more than $100,000 USD in alleged moral damages.

Police in Almaty accused Ermek Narymbaev organizing an unsanctioned protest after he wrote on Facebook that he was going to Almaty’s central square to hand-deliver a list of demands to local government representatives following the devaluation of the national currency.

Arrested by the National Security Committee (KNB) on 14 May, Yaroslav Golyshkin is being held on blackmail and extortion charges brought by the governor and is currently subject to a pre-trial detention order valid until 16 July.

The municipal authorities of Almaty launched the case against against opposition weekly ADAM bol over an article about Ukraine they called “pro-war propaganda.” They are seeking the withdrawal of the weekly’s licence and its definitive closure.

PEN International called on Kazakhstan to comply with its obligation under international law to protect freedom of expression, and proposed a number of recommendations on how this right could be better protected.

An Almaty court awarded thousands of dollars in damages against an advertising agency for a poster depicting two male cultural icons kissing, Human Rights Watch said today.

Respect for freedom of expression should lead to dismissal of multiple lawsuits over a poster that shows two male cultural icons kissing.

If the government declares a state of emergency, officials can issue orders to suspend or terminate media publications, suspend the activities of political parties and public associations, or have administrative sanctions brought against individuals for using audio or video recording devices when they have been ordered not to.

Three court marshals in Almaty raided the offices of the Assandi Times and ordered the journalists to stop working, accusing the paper of being linked to the independent newspaper Respublika, which is banned in Kazakhstan.

The shutdown order issued by a district court in Almaty against the independent weekly newspaper Pravdivaya Gazeta is yet another example of Kazakhstan’s determination to gag independent voices in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on 25 February 2014, adding that the verdict should be overturned on appeal.