DCK NEWSPAPER SOZ CLOSED BY COURT ORDER

UNCLAS ALMATY 000794

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

STATE FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE),EUR/PPD (JBASEDOW),EUR/ACE
(MO'NEAL/ESMITH),DRL/PHD (PDAVIS)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KDEM KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: DCK NEWSPAPER SOZ CLOSED BY COURT ORDER

Ref: Almaty 545


1. (SBU). SUMMARY. Democratic Choice of Kazakshtan's
(DCK) newspaper, Soz ("Word"),has been closed down via
official court order. On January 31, an inter-district
economic court ordered the newspaper to pay the National
Security Committee (KNB) 5 million tenge ($38,500) in
damages for a September 2004 article that alleged the KNB
was spying on leaders of the opposition Ak Zhol party. On
February 11, the same court told the paper to suspend
publishing, and froze the financial assets and physical
property of its owner and publisher. Fighting on against
the odds, Soz resurfaced on February 25 as an insert in
Respublika, another opposition weekly well-known for its
defiance of the authorities. In discussing the rulings
against Soz, media defense advocates point to a number of
factors that indicate a calculated effort to silence
critical, independent media. END SUMMARY.

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Court Orders Soz to Pay KNB $38,500 for Libel
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2. (SBU) On January 31, the inter-district economic court
of Almaty ordered the weekly Kazakh-Russian language
newspaper, Soz (Word),to pay the KNB (Komitet
Natsional'noy Bezopasnosti) 5 million tenge ($38,500) for
maligning the KNB's "business reputation." The KNB filed
suit in the court in December 2004 in response to Soz's
September 23 article, alleging that "National Security
Committee officers followed the leaders of the Ak Zhol
party." The article referred to an incident in September
2004, when Ak Zhol party members claimed KNB officers kept
them under surveillance and followed them to a restaurant.
The court ruled that defense lawyer Sergey Utkin failed to
prove the KNB had followed Ak Zhol party members, and that
therefore the allegation in the article did "not correspond
to reality." [Note: Utkin asked to call Ak Zhol party
members as witnesses, but the judge denied the request.]
Besides the fine, the judge ordered the paper to print a
retraction on the front page, but it has so far refused to
do so. Navigator.kz, a progressive, online news source,
published the same allegation and, apparently at the
request of the KNB, did post a retraction.

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Court Orders Soz to Suspend Publication
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3. (SBU) Less than two weeks later, on February 11, the
same court ordered Soz to suspend publication and froze the
financial assets and property of the newspaper's owner, Ak
Tas LLP and its publisher, List-Info LLP. At a February 17
news conference in Almaty, Utkin said that the order,
following the libel judgment, proved that the KNB had
intended to shut the newspaper down, and not just receive
compensation for damages to the agency's reputation. He
said Soz, as an opposition newspaper, had limited
opportunities to generate income through advertising in any
case, but after being ordered to cease publication, the
newspaper would not be able to raise any funds to pay the
fine. [Note: the paper was supported financially by the
Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan political party, which the
courts also ordered liquidated, per reftel.] According to
the civil code, a court ruling goes into effect only if it
has not been appealed. Utkin said that the paper would
appeal both the libel judgment and the order to cease
publishing to the Almaty City Court; that hearing is
scheduled for March 9.


4. (SBU) Soz was a nationwide weekly, published in both
Kazakh and Russian, with a circulation of 34,800, and
possibly two or three times higher, given the local custom
of sharing newspapers to save money. In the case of Soz,
editor-in-chief Sharip Kurakbayev said the paper was passed
hand to hand because many kiosks refused to sell it.
Although it had only been publishing for two years, Soz had
gained a loyal following that appreciated the way the paper
pushed the limits and defied authorities.


5. (SBU) Tamara Kaleyeva, head of the free-speech NGO Adil
Soz (Just Word),questioned the premise by which a tax-
supported government agency could file suit for damage to
its "business reputation." She noted that Kazakhstan's
laws do not limit the amount of compensation for moral
damage, and only specify that fines be "reasonable and

sufficient." "A question arises," she said. "Sufficient
for what? To make them bankrupt?"

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Soz Re-Issued as Insert in Respublika
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6. (SBU) In a typical demonstration of defiance, Soz
editor-in-chief Sharip Kurakbayev gave an interview for the
February 18 edition of opposition weekly Epokha, in which
he said his paper would continue publishing, despite the
court rulings. Indeed, Soz re-surfaced February 25 under
its own masthead and with a funereal black border as an
insert in the opposition weekly Respublika, another
opposition newspaper well-known for its problems with the
authorities. [Note: The editorial staff of the Assandi
Times started publishing Respublika in August, 2004, after
the Assandi Times was forced to close as a result of a
$385,000 libel judgment.] The insert featured an interview
with chairman of the Coordinating Council of Democratic
Forces chairman Zharmakhan Tuyakbay on the problems and
prospects of Kazakhstan's political opposition, along with
critical commentary by opposition leaders on President
Nazarbayev's annual address.


7. (SBU) COMMENT. In the rulings against Soz, media
defense advocates point out a number of factors that
indicate a calculated effort to silence critical,
independent media. First is the KNB's decision to file
suit with Almaty's inter-district economic court. This
particular court offers procedural advantages to accusers,
since it is supposed to decide litigation between entities
that can legally be defined as "economic" and those
entities can then be ordered by a judge to cease activity
immediately, without any warning. In an administrative
court, the law allows for a warning to be issued, an
interval of time for the accused to comply, followed by a
fine or suspension of activities.


8. (SBU) COMMENT. A second factor cited is Soz's tie to
DCK. Observers believe that once the prosecutor filed suit
to have DCK shut down, the newspaper that publicized DCK's
activities and opinions became a target. Finally, Soz
heightened its profile through its defiance of the
authorities. Other news organizations, when ordered to
comply with rulings by courts or other government entities,
have done so to continue publishing. This was the case
with Navigator.kz, which issued a retraction of the
surveillance story allegations. It remains to be seen if
Soz will be able to continue such defiance through using
other, novel avenues of publication such as its February 25
supplement in Respublika.


9. Dushanbe minimize considered.

Ordway


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