OMNIBUS OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS IN KAZAKHSTAN

UNCLAS ALMATY 003277 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE),EUR/PPD (JBASEDOW),EUR/ACE (ESMITH/JMCKANE),DRL/PHD (CKUCHTA-HEIBLING) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KDEM KZ POLITICAL SUBJECT: OMNIBUS OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS IN KAZAKHSTAN Ref: Almaty 1953 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. This is the first of a series of bi- monthly cables on developments among Kazakhstan's media. Most of the incidents reported here indicate a pattern of restrictions against editorially independent media in the run-up to the December presidential elections. To their great credit, Kazakhstan's independent journalists continue to push back and to find innovative ways to make their voices heard. END SUMMARY. Sarsenbaiuly Loses Appeal, Ordered to Pay $7,635 Damages -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) On July 20, the Almaty city court upheld the June 13 verdict by the Medeu regional court in Khabar v. Sarsenbaiuly. Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, the former Minister of Information, and current co-chair of the opposition party Real Ak Zhol, was ordered to publish a retraction and pay 1 million tenge ($7,635) to the Khabar joint stock company. The court ruled that Sarsenbaiuly had disseminated information damaging the company's reputation. Sarsenbaiuly stated in an interview with the opposition weekly "Respublika: Delovoye Obozreniye" (circulation 40,000) last October that the Khabar Agency was part of Dariga Nazarbayeva's media monopoly, which concentrated ownership among administration loyalists and thus stifled media independence in Kazakhstan. Sarsenbaiuly has filed an appeal and vowed to resist any attempts to make him pay damages. Cable Provider Temporarily Drops TV Stations -------------- ¶3. (SBU) From July 25 to August 7, the Almaty channels TAN and Channel 31 were dropped from the Alma-TV cable television package for about two weeks without explanation. Technical representatives of the two channels say they had not broken any terms of their transmission contract. Alma- TV management ignored the channels' requests for an explanation. About 100,000 subscribers were affected, almost all in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city. Although Channel 31 at times bends to pressure from the administration, it is considered by its peers to offer the most objective and balanced television news in Kazakhstan. Media observers interpret the unexplained lapse as attempt by the Dariga Nazarbayeva monopoly, which includes Alma-TV, to intimidate a business competitor, the Channel 31 holding company, which owns Channel 31 and TAN. President Bush's Letter Used for Political Gain -------------- -- ¶4. (SBU) The Presidential Press Service released portions of President Bush's June letter to President Nazarbayev to the official daily Kazakhstanskaya Pravda (circulation 70,000),which published the excerpts on the front page August 2 under the banner headline "Strategic Partnership." The published excerpts covered almost everything in the letter - including the call for democratic reforms and clean elections - but excluded the comments on the draft NGO legislation. Pro-government daily Liter (circulation 32,000/week) said that the letter showed Washington would support Nazarbayev's candidacy. Pro-government weekly Delovaya Nedelya (circulation 10,600) also considered the letter a positive sign and said the opposition media would try to divine a critical tone in it. (Note: No opposition media reported on the letter, most likely because the text was not shared with them.) Opposition Candidate Ignored by Mainstream Media -------------- --- ¶5. (SBU) On August 17, the prosecutor sent a letter to Zharmakhan Tuyakbay, the chairman of the opposition movement For a Just Kazakhstan (FJK),warning him that any travel he conducted would be construed as pre-election campaigning, which is illegal until after the Majilis announces the date for elections. In response, Tuyakbay the next day issued an open letter to President Nazarbayev denying the charges and accusing Nazarbayev of violating the law. The national television stations and official, centrist, and progressive newspapers ignored the letter. A handful of opposition print and online media, which have a considerably smaller audience, published portions of Tuyakbay's response. Many printed only Tuyakbay's denial and omitted the accusation against Nazarbayev. Express K Ordered to Publish Retraction, Pay 5 M Tenge -------------- -------------- ¶6. (U) On August 17, the Almaty city court upheld the ruling by the Almaty economic inter-district court on a case filed by Kazkommertsbank against Ekspress K for an article last September intimating that Kazkommertsbank was on the verge of bankruptcy. Ekspress K was supposed to publish a retraction within 10 days of the ruling and pay 5 million tenge ($37,000) in damages. In an interview with RFE/RL Radio Azzattyk, former Ekspress K editor Igor Shakhnovich said he would not publish a retraction. He said, "They put the hammer on trial, but the hammer was wielded by Yuriy Nesterenko, Vice President of the Eurasian Industrial Association, and his boss Aleksandr Mashkevich." On September 1, Kazkommertsbank issued a press release announcing that the bank intends to exercise its right to enforce the implementation of the court ruling, as allowed in the civic code. Ministry of Information vs. Respublika Ruling Postponed -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) On September 6, the inter-district economic court in Almaty postponed the adjudication of a claim filed by the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Sport against Respublika: Delovoye Obozreniye, the weekly financed by the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan opposition movement. As reported reftel, on May 4, the ministry ordered Respublika to stop publishing and revoked its registration. The ministry claimed the transfer of Respublika from one owner to another was illegal and thus provided legal justification for shutting the paper down. The ministry's decree followed two previous court rulings demanding the liquidation of the newspaper's parent company, Bastau, Ltd. The paper re-appeared as Syet'.kz ("net") on May 13. Supreme Court Shuts Down Syet'.kz; Harassment Follows -------------- -------------- ¶8. (SBU) The battle continued with the attempt by Almaty city police to stop distribution of the May 13 Syet'.kz, claiming the paper was not registered with the information ministry. Syet'.kz claimed to have registered on March 18, ¶2003. As required by law, they issued one paper within six months of registering, on September 17, 2003, and sent a copy to the ministry. The ministry said they annulled the registration April 30, 2004. In June 2005, Astana's city court ruled the ministry had the right to cancel the registration because the owners did not inform the ministry of a change in the owner's address, and the owners failed to send their first issues to the appropriate organizations. On August 25, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the city court. 9.(SBU) The ruling signaled the end of Syet'.kz, but it reappeared on September 9 as Pyatoye Izmereniye (The Fifth Dimension.) Because printers refuse to print the paper, the staff is printing it on 11x16 broadsheets in the office, and hiring their own drivers to distribute it to vendors. The publisher issued a press release describing how a group of five men, two in police uniforms, showed up at the Syet'.kz editorial offices at 21:30 on September 7 demanding to be let in to check passports and/or confirm there were no "burglars" in the house. The staff believe the incident is just one example of the harassment, which will be repeated. Opposition Newspapers Seized -------------- ¶10. (SBU) At a September 1 press conference, editors of the opposition papers Epokha, Syet'.kz, Apta.kz, and Data Nedeli-Zhuma Times said that their printed issues were being seized by the authorities. Epokha editor-in-chief Bakhytzhan Mukushev said the editors were used to occasional confiscations, when the print runs were 15,000- 20,000, but the harassment has recently intensified as the papers increase their volume up to 100,000. (Note: the opposition is printing large volumes of special election editions as part of their election campaigning). Without commenting on the issue of depriving the public of alternative points of view, Mukushev said the confiscations meant financial losses, considering the average 13 to 18 tenge cost of one issue multiplied by the total circulation - as much as $13,300. Yermurat Bapi of Data Nedeli-Zhuma Times said there was no point in appealing to the government and recommended publicizing the confiscations to international human rights organizations and the public. Highest Circulation Independent Weekly Under Pressure -------------- -------------- ¶11. (SBU) The editors of Vremya, Kazakhstan's highest circulation news weekly (180,000),told emboff September 3 that the paper is being pressured by the authorities to refuse print orders from opposition newspapers. Vremya is one of Kazakhstan's few profitable newspapers, because it owns the printing facility which it uses to print other publications, including opposition papers. Echoing the comment made at the September 1 press conference, Vremya's editor said most of the opposition's orders had averaged 20,000 per week per paper, but the orders have increased to 100,000 each, and many opposition editors plan print runs up to 500,000 as the election campaigns proceed. ¶12. (U) Minimize for Dushanbe considered. Asquino NNNN