ZERO TOLERANCE FOR KAZAKHSTAN'S OPPOSITION PRESS

UNCLAS ALMATY 003924

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE),EUR/PPD (JBASEDOW),EUR/ACE
(ESMITH/JMCKANE),DRL/PHD (CKUCHTA-HELBLING)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KDEM KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: ZERO TOLERANCE FOR KAZAKHSTAN'S OPPOSITION PRESS

Ref: A) Almaty 3453, B) Almaty 3790, C) Almaty 3861


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Harassment of opposition print media
intensified in the three weeks leading up to start of the
official campaign period October 25. While print runs have
increased, there have been incidents ranging from
confiscation of the entire print run of one paper, to
grabbing copies out of cars to prevent them from reaching
newsstands. More subtle and bureaucratic harassment has
continued in the courts. Public statements by GOK
representatives present a stark contrast between the
official policy on media coverage of the elections and
actions carried out to harass opposition media. It is not
clear exactly where the orders to seize opposition
newspapers are coming from, and the Presidential
Administration admitted privately that there are sharply
differing views on this among Nazarbayev's senior advisors.
Some political analysts claim the authorities are behind
the actions and suggest that government loyalists are once
again over-fulfilling a plan for a big win on election day.
First daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva threatened court action
against any media that attempted to slander her father, the
head of state, or their family. END SUMMARY.


Progressive Website Navi.kz Loses Site
--------------


2. (SBU) As reported Ref C, the well-known progressive
Internet newspaper "Navigator" lost its site (navi.kz)
following the trademark registration of its name by a
person who shares a business address with the Khabar state
TV channel. Navigator editor-in-chief Yuriy Mizinov posted
an account on his new site, www.mizinov.kz, about how
navi.kz was taken offline. According to Mizinov's account,
on October 13, he received a letter from the administrator
for the .kz Internet domain names, informing him that the
navi.kz site would be taken offline for copyright
violations. The copyright complaint came from Sergey
Bondertsev, who filed suit with the Almalinskiy District
Court without notifying Mizinov or his staff. Back in
September, Bondertsev created a clone of the Navigator site
and registered the name "Navigator" and variations such as
"navi." Mizinov then registered another domain,
www.mizinov.net, and that site was blocked. (The masthead
of the site spells out "navi" in Morse code.) When Mizinov
and his lawyer met with the bailiff October 21 to find out
why www.mizinov.net was being blocked, they were told that
the court would monitor the site for a month for further
trademark violations. The site is back on the Internet via
a proxy server after almost a week of being offline.

Harassment and Confiscations Across the Regions
-------------- --


3. (U) On October 10, the opposition media and the media
advocacy organization Adil Soz reported that Kaziz
Toguzbayev, a correspondent of the opposition weekly Azat,
was arrested in Almaty while covering a conference of the
opposition association, People's Party Alga (Ahead). Fifty-
three conference participants were also arrested as they
were marching to Republic Square to place flowers at the
monument to Kazakhstan's independence. The Almaty inter-
district administrative court sentenced him to 5 days'
detention for participating in an unauthorized march. In
protest, Toguzbayev went on a hunger strike for the period
of his arrest. No one was allowed to meet him at the
detention facility. (Note: On October 22 the registrar of
the Justice Ministry suspended the registration application
of the party, pending verification of the membership list.
Party leader Asylbek Kozhakhmetov believes the move is a
stalling tactic to delay a final decision on registration.
End Note.)


4. (U) On October 17, FJK's press service reported claims
of numerous incidents of harassment. According to FJK,
activist Galina Gramlih and her husband were distributing
opposition newspapers in the Al-Farabi district in Astana,
when they were forced at gunpoint by four men dressed as
civilians to drive to a police precinct where the police
confiscated 228 copies of opposition publications DATa
Nedelya (Zhuma Times),three copies of Epokha, and 10 FJK
pamphlets. Gramlih was accused of distributing illegal

campaign materials, although according to FJK the pamphlets
did not contain any information that fit the legal
definition of "campaign materials" exhorting voters to vote
for a particular candidate. In the northern city of
Kostanay on October 21, FJK reported that police stopped a
car that was delivering the opposition papers Epokha,
Pravda, Apta.kz, and Svoboda Slova, and without explanation
confiscated all copies. On October 22, FJK said that
traffic police in Almaty stopped a car driven by two
elderly Communist party members and confiscated 400 copies
of Svoboda Slova, issue 33, and briefly detained 65-year-
old Turbanaly Turginbayev for resisting the police
confiscation. (Note: as noted in para 5, issue 33 was
seized shortly after printing. Although the seizure was
upheld by the courts, numerous copies of this issue managed
to evade the authorities and are now circulating hand-to-
hand.)

Svoboda Slova Issue #33 Confiscated, Defamation Suit Filed
-------------- --------------


5. (U) As reported Ref C, the October 19 issue of
opposition "Svoboda Slova" ("Freedom of the Press")
newspaper was seized by police on the orders of the Almaty
election commission. During an October 19 press
conference, editor-in-chief Gul'zhan Yergaliyeva recounted
how authorities had seized the paper and argued that
article 20 of the law on mass media permitted confiscation
only with a court order. Svoboda Slova journalists issued
a statement saying someone at the Dauir printing firm had
to have tipped off police about the paper's content because
police arrived at 06:00, before the papers could be
distributed. They note that the Dauir printing firm is
owned by the President's sister-in-law, Svetlana
Nazarbayeva. As noted in Ref A, Dauir agreed to print the
opposition papers after the previous printer, Vremya, was
pressured into refusing.


6. (U) The Minister of Interior told the Ambassador on
October 22 that the paper was seized because the back page
article about registration of Tuyakbay's candidacy
constituted premature campaigning. He showed the
Ambassador a copy of the paper to prove his point. On
October 27, CEC Chairman Zhumabekov told Ambassadors Finley
and Ordway that the only role the CEC has with regard to
media is to oversee the process of providing space in state-
owned newspapers and time on state-owned media. He
disavowed any CEC authority to seek the seizure of
newspapers, which he said belonged exclusively to the
procuracy and law enforcement bodies.


7. (U) The media advocacy group Adil Soz and Mizinov
report that on October 21, the court also fined DATa Nedeli
39,000 tenge (about $290) for insulting the honor and
dignity of the President in the article, "Kazakhgate:
History of One Crime." The closed hearing took place with
no legal representatives of the paper or witnesses.
Yermurat Bapi had requested a postponement because DATa
Nedeli founder and director Zhumash Kenesbai was in the
hospital recovering from a heart attack.

Svoboda Slova Issue #34 Confiscated, Then Returned
-------------- --------------


8. (U) Yergaliyeva posted a statement on kub.kz describing
how early in the morning of October 26, police in Almaty
stopped a car that was delivering 30,000 copies of Svoboda
Slova, issue #34, and confiscated all copies. At 10:30 the
same morning, a representative of the Medeu district police
station arrived at FJK's central office and said that
police had "made a mistake." He apologized for
confiscating issue #34 and suggested that FJK come to the
station to pick up the papers.

The Politically Correct Official Reaction and Response
-------------- --------------


9. (SBU) Public statements by the editors of official
media, by President Nazarbayev's campaign manager, and the
information ministry present a stark contrast between the
official policy on media coverage of the elections and
actions carried out to harass opposition media. Kaisar
Dzhanakhanov, chairman of the information and archive


committee of the information ministry, said publicly he had
no information about the grounds for confiscating Svoboda
Slova, nor any complaints regarding the paper's activities.
He speculated that the reports were publicity stunts by the
opposition.


10. (U) In comments to the press, Bakhytzhan Zhumagulov,
head of the President's campaign headquarters, agreed with
Yergaliyeva's legal assessment and said that according to
article 14 of the law on mass media, state agencies could
block the sale of a newspaper only with a court order. He
said that he did not support other actions blocking the
sale of newspapers "if these actions are inconsistent with
current legislation." Zhumagulov's comments followed his
October 21 meeting with the head of the ODIHR/OSCE election
observation mission for Kazakhstan Audrey Glover.


11. (U) At a press conference in Almaty on October 19, the
chief editors of state television and print media declared
their intention to provide unbiased coverage of the
presidential election campaigns. Kazakhstanskaya Pravda's
Oleg Kvyatkovskiy said, "Politics is defined by four simple
words: objectivity, the principle of equal coverage of all
candidates, impartiality, and naturally, due process of law
in covering campaigns of each candidate." When asked if
official media would publish opposition campaign materials,
Sauytbek Abdrakhmanov of the official Kazakh language daily
Yegemen Kazakhstan said, "That's a rhetorical question. It
is required by law, so we will observe all legal
requirements." Khabar Agency general director Ismail
Igilmanov reminded journalists of the "pact" signed by more
than 20 media outlets in late September "to equally
distribute broadcasting time among the candidates and to be
transparent in covering an election campaign of each
candidate without any infringements."


12. (U) The information ministry announced October 21 its
intention to continually monitor coverage of the
presidential campaigns by state media and issue weekly
reports on the quantity of reporting for each candidate.
The results of the monitoring will be provided to the
Central Election Commission, the campaign headquarters of
each registered candidate, international election
observation missions, civil election observation
organizations, and media. The ministry reiterated that all
candidates would be provided equal access to state-run
television, radio, and print media for their campaigns.
The ministry called on the media to be objective, fair, and
balanced in covering campaigns and to observe high
journalistic standards. Echoing the procurator's September
warning to journalists to be responsible and not publish
provocative, libelous information, the ministry reminded
them to observe the law, which prohibited the publication
of materials that insulted the honor, dignity, and
reputation of the president.


13. (SBU) In an October 27 meeting with USOSCE Ambassador
Julie Finley, Presidential Administration Chief
Dzhaksybekov claimed that the seizure of newspapers that
violated the law was justified, but added that there were
those around the president that had different views,
including his deputy, Marat Tazhin, who was sitting next to
him.


14. (SBU) A statement by Dariga Nazarbayeva quoted on
October 27 by Interfax suggests there may be even more
legal actions in the future. She said that the President's
family reserves the right to pursue cases of "libel" in the
courts, including internationally, if circumstances of
their personal life, their businesses and their other
activities are used to discredit the president or
Kazakhstan's reputation.

Why Are They Doing This?
--------------


15. (SBU) The gap between the official statements on media
and harassment of opposition media by city and precinct
level police raises questions about who is ordering the
harassment and why. Here are a few of the theories that
are currently on the street, and our own take on them.


16. (SBU) Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution recently

suggested that the authorities fear a "color revolution" in
Kazakhstan. Our reading of the series of recent meetings
between Nazarbayev and senior American officials, as well
as our contacts with a number of his senior advisors,
suggests that any such fear has been dramatically reduced
in recent months. The more sophisticated advisors realize
that provocative actions directed against the opposition
are likely to increase rather than decrease the motivation
to attempt mass protests in the streets.


17. (SBU) The prominent political scientist Nurbulat
Masanov theorized to us that the harassment of the
opposition media is calculated to limit their activities,
and he claimed that it is "well known" that the authorities
are behind it. We agree that the authorities are behind
it, but the question remains exactly which authorities.
While the seizure of Svoboda Slova may have been debated at
the highest levels (at least after, if not before the
action),the day-to-day harassment is much more likely to
be locally generated.


18. (SBU) Political commentator Yerlan Karin said the
authorities don't simply want to win the presidential
elections, they want an "astonishing victory." Our take is
slightly different. Nazarbayev and his senior advisors are
telling us repeatedly, and with apparent sincerity, that
they realize a legitimate victory in the 60-70 percent
range is better than a rigged victory in the 80-plus range.
From this perspective, seizures of opposition press could
be seen as loyalists over-fulfilling the plan in the
absence of any explicit instructions. As in most post-
Soviet states, in Kazakhstan anyone in a position of
subordinate authority (political, business, governmental,
administrative) feels compelled to "deliver" the best
possible results for the incumbent President. This sense
of competition is exacerbated by the highly centralized
system of economic and political power centered on the
President. In such a context, perceived self-interest will
win out over admonitions from Astana -- assuming there have
been any -- every time.


19. (U) Minimize for Dushanbe considered.

Ordway


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