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
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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
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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
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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


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