Kazakhstan: Officials Send Signals on Media Liberalization

Kazakhstan's media climate is in the spotlight, as the Central Asian nation hosts the sixth annual Eurasian Media Forum. With Kazakhstan pressing its bid to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009, some regional experts believe that President Nursultan Nazarbayev's administration is willing to gradually expand the country's information space.

The day before the April 19 opening of the three-day forum -- which attracted about 500 participants for discussions on media-related and geopolitical issues -- a new, more liberal draft media law was introduced in Kazakhstan's parliament. The draft was prepared with input from local non-governmental organizations. Earlier versions of the legislation had twice been withdrawn from parliamentary debate. This time, local media observers are hopeful that the bill will gain parliamentary approval. "I think we are now on the threshold of fundamental new steps," Tamara Kaleyeva, the head of the Adil Soz (Free Speech) NGO, said during an interview with EurasiaNet.

Nazarbayev's strong desire to secure the OSCE chair seems to be driving the media legislation process. Restrictions on freedom of speech were cited by OSCE officials when they opted to postpone a final decision on Kazakhstan's bid until later this year. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The clear expectation of the OSCE leadership in Vienna is that Kazakhstan will take action during this period to burnish its civil rights image. "It is a question of real, practical steps that are required for OSCE members to confirm Kazakhstan's chairmanship," Kaleyeva said.

The draft media law under consideration would ease restrictions on freedom of information and media registration, decriminalize libel and tighten up regulations on media monopolization. However, it would retain provisions that protect the president from insult. Earlier this year, the OSCE called for such laws to be abolished. Kaleyeva characterized the legislation as "not ideal, but realistic," adding that the retention of the defamation provisions protecting the president and other top officials was "a concession" made on the part of NGO activists.

In another sign of liberalization, officials decided to withdraw draft legislation that would have expanded government oversight of the publishing industry, Information Minister Yermukhamet Yertysbayev revealed during an April 17 interview broadcast on Khabar TV.

Despite these moves, journalism remains a hazardous profession in Kazakhstan, a fact underscored by the ongoing search for a journalist who has been missing since late March. On April 18, Kazakhstan's Union of Journalists called on police to step up the search for Oralgaisha Omarshanova, an investigative reporter for the Astana-based Zakon i Pravosudiye newspaper. Prior to her disappearance, Omarshanova wrote an article that suggested local officials and entrepreneurs might have had a role in provoking a clash involving ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Chechens. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

According to a report prepared by Adil Soz, 13 attacks on editorial offices and journalists were reported in 2006, down from 21 in 2005. Kaleyeva suggested that about half of the recorded incidents were most likely related to petty crime. But the report asserted that an increasing number of attacks in 2006 were linked to the professional activities of the victims. This year has seen additional instances of apparent retribution. In early April, for example, the offices of Lada, a newspaper in the western Kazakhstani city of Aktau, were gutted by an arson attack. Staffers at the paper linked the incident to the newspaper's local news coverage.

Media observers also say Kazakhstani officials sometimes manipulate the judicial system in order to intimidate independent-minded reporters, and punish those who probe too deeply into government conduct.

The Adil Soz report said 21 journalists were taken to court in 2006, up from 15 in 2005. Journalists sued by officials have traditionally stood little chance of winning their respective cases, Kaleyeva said. In addition, 120 journalists faced civil cases in 2006, in which a total of $56 million in damages was sought, although only a small fraction of that amount was awarded.

New legislation is a start, but if Kazakhstani leaders want to promote a more open media environment, they also should encourage greater transparency in ownership, some analysts say.

Kazakhstan's media market is "still severely monopolized, and the actual owners of mass media [outlets] are normally unknown," the Adil Soz watchdog report stated.

Individuals with close administration ties -- including Dariga Nazarbayeva, the president's daughter, and her husband, Rakhat Aliyev -- are known to be among Kazakhstan's most influential media barons. However, in many cases, the ownership structures of media outlets are not open to public scrutiny. In addition, owners tend to utilize their properties to promote their own interests, rather than serve the public interest, Kaleyeva indicated. "In Kazakhstan we have few really independent publications," she said. "They [media outlets] all have their owners, whose interests can clash with each other."

Gulnar Assanbayeva, a journalism lecturer at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research, agreed with that assessment. "Unfortunately the level of trust [in the media] is very low, and this is mainly explained by the fact that the papers and journalists articulate the interests of their owners," she told EurasiaNet.

Asked about the prospects for improvement in Kazakhstan's media environment, Assanbayeva sounded an optimistic note. "I see light at the end of the tunnel