Kazakhstan: Journalists demand guarantees for the protection of their rights
Kazakhstan has risen in the press freedom index by 33 positions compared to last year – from 155th to 122nd place. However, according to Kazakhstani journalists and public figures, such an impressive spurt is not due to the desire of the authorities to ensure freedom of speech and democratic processes in the country, but to the fact that in other countries the situation with press freedom has become worse. This was announced at a press conference in Almaty by Tamara Kaleyeva, President of the International Foundation for the Protection of Freedom of Speech “Adil Soz”.
“It was a surprise for me. We thought that maybe we would rise by three or four points. We predicted this last year, thanks to the fact that slander has been decriminalized (although not fully), and the work is underway to decriminalize insults. Last year, we didn’t have anything extraordinary, media companies weren’t closed, journalists weren’t imprisoned. I think that for others, it means that the situation is much worse, that’s why we jumped like that,” Kaleyeva explained.
According to the editor-in-chief of Ratel.kz portal Marat Asipov, the Kazakhstani media have a lot of problems, including with fact-checking and understanding the current legislation.
“However, the main problem is that each new minister considers it his duty to improve the media law. As a result, it becomes heavier, some completely stupid norms arise, while it’s out of step with the times, as new trends appear in the media space. There is a serious problem with online media activities. For example, if you want to protect your site and use Western technologies for this, you can be closed on the simple basis that the hardware and software complex is located abroad. If you have a media license that presents information, for example, in Russian, but you get information in English, then you can also be held accountable for this and banned from work. There are problems of subjectivity and preconception on the part of government agencies towards the media,” Asipov said.
According to the journalist, despite the fact that freedom of speech is clearly declared in the country, every media company understands very clearly what it can publish and what it cannot. And the oversight body can easily find grounds for shutting down any media in the country.
“Why does the media need separate legislation? Now any person, who publishes on social networks, can, in fact, be an editorial office, and a global editorial office as well. But its activities are not regulated by the media law, but by general laws. We need to show more solidarity. Yes, we cannot organize rallies, but what is stopping us from going to press with blank pages to show that we are together. But we continue to sit in corporate apartments and wait. And they continue to shoot us one by one,” Asipov stressed.
According to the participants of the press conference, in order to ensure real freedom of speech and the press, Kazakhstan needs not so much a law on mass media as a law “On guarantees of freedom of speech”.
“I believe that, by the highest standards, no state needs a law on the media. But we live here and now, and we perfectly understand that in the foreseeable future we will not manage without the law. Therefore, we need to work on what it will be like. Last year we worked with the ministry on a draft law on mass media. The work was quite mediocre on their part and also quietly died out. And this year, thanks to the “kick” of the President, a new law should also be developed on the media. And we, the Foundation “Adil Soz”, a group of journalists, experts, media lawyers with whom we worked, developed the concept of the law, which we propose to call “On guarantees of freedom of speech,” Tamara Kaleyeva noted in her turn.
According to her, the draft concept has already been submitted to the relevant ministry. According to the Minister of Information and Social Development Askar Umarov, a working group is being created, which already includes journalists from Nur-Sultan and Almaty.
“So far they only have wishes. The only concept, that they have received, is our concept. We will finalize it and publish it this week. I really hope that the journalists will read it and will refine it, give some concrete proposals. If we don’t get ahead of the officials now, then these will be either regular amendments, where it will be necessary to take control and registration of all bloggers, or it will be necessary to tighten up and expand the powers of the authorized bodies,” Kaleyeva emphasized.
As Kaleyeva explained, the new law should contain specific obligations of the state to ensure the right to freedom of speech, clear conditions for restricting this right, rules of responsibility for violation of these restrictions and liab/wp restrictions. The concept includes two main sections. The first refers to guarantees of freedom of speech for all citizens. The second one refers directly to the media as a public institution.
