KAZAKHSTAN: INFORMATION MINISTER REPLACES MANAGERS AT NATIONAL TELEVISION STATIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ALMATY 001750



SIPDIS



SENSITIVE



SIPDIS



STATE FOR SCA/CEN (JMUDGE),SCA/PPD (JBASEDOW),DRL/PHD

(CKUCHTA-HELBLING)



E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KPAO, KDEM, KZ

SUBJ: KAZAKHSTAN: INFORMATION MINISTER REPLACES MANAGERS

AT NATIONAL TELEVISION STATIONS



Ref: A) Almaty 485, B) Almaty 1144



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Plans by the Minister of Information to

improve the professionalism at one national television

station and to nationalize another partly owned by the

president's daughter have provoked a public feud. According

to some analysts, the change in management at the official

broadcaster was intended to snuff out the alleged influence

of radical Islamists and to consolidate control of

influential television media ahead of the 2012 presidential

elections. Others see the minister's moves as retaliation

for the daughter's articles questioning the official

versions of the deaths of oppositionists Sarsenbaiuly and

Nurkadilov. END SUMMARY.



2. (U) On April 18, Minister of Information and Culture

Yermukhambet Yertysbayev, until recently an advisor in the

Presidential Administration, dismissed Galym Dosken from his

position as chairman of official national broadcaster

"Kazakhstan 1" and appointed Nurtyleu Imangaliyev in his

place. More than 120 staff members resigned in protest, and

said they were not satisfied with the minister's public

explanation that the change was made to improve the level of

professionalism. Yertysbayev's public comments revealed

that changes at Khabar were also being planned: "My task is

to ensure a high quality state information policy, at least

at state TV channels like Kazakhstan 1, even if it means

restoring full control over Khabar to make sure there is no

manipulation." As for the employees who resigned, he said

the new management would not ask them to stay, and that

there were plenty of other journalists at the station.

(Note: The parent company, Kazakhstanskaya Tele Radio

Korporatsiya, has over 1,500 employees. End note.)



3. (U) Yertysbayev provided fuller explanations of his

intentions in interviews with the opposition newspapers

Respublika and Epokha. In the April 21 Respublika he

remarked, "Being located between Russia and China in the

Muslim world, Kazakhstan should control the electronic

media, in a good sense of this word. . . More than 82

foreign TV channels broadcast on the territory of

Kazakhstan. That's why my task is to defend the state

information policy, to enforce Article 20 of the

Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech, and to

protect the interests of all journalists."



4. (U) In his April 28 interview with Epokha, Yertysbayev

said he intended to restore the controlling interest of the

state in the second official channel, Khabar, which is

partly owned by the President's daughter, Dariga

Nazarbayeva. The first move may have been taken on May 5,

when Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maulen

Ashimbayev was elected Chairman of the Khabar Agency's Board

of Directors at a special Khabar shareholders' meeting.



5. (U) In the same interview Yertysbayev also threatened to

revoke the broadcasting license of KTK TV, owned by

Nazarbayeva's husband First Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat

Aliyev, for not broadcasting enough Kazakh language

programming as required by law, and for the manner in which

the station reported on the Sarsenbaiuly murder

investigation (Ref B). "Everything that KTK broadcasts is a

serious violation of the country's constitution, which

stipulates that citizens have the right to receive truthful

information. However, in this case [reporting on the

investigation] they did not receive it. They received lies,

a distortion of the truth." (Note: In February, KTK and

Karavan, the weekly tabloid owned by Aliyev, reported the

demands made by For a Just Kazakhstan (FJK) representatives

for the resignation of Senate speaker Nurtay Abykayev, and

FJK's appeals to the authorities to ensure the safety of

others arrested for the murder. End note.)



6. (U) Nazarbayeva's response to the information minister's

plans came on May 11 in a statement from the Congress of

Journalists, which she chairs. The statement called for



ALMATY 00001750 002 OF 002





Yertysbayev's resignation, alleging that he had used

authoritarian means in forcibly rotating personnel, and in

toughening the state information policy. In commenting on

the statement Nazarbayeva said, "My colleagues and I

initiated this statement about Yertysbayev's immediate

resignation because we believe that his activities in the

mass media are incompetent and getting worse."



7. (U) Yertysbayev responded publicly the next day, telling

journalists, "Kazakhstan's Congress of Journalists is

interfering with the work of the executive-administrative

bodies of power and is crudely violating the law and

constitution by attempting to influence the head of state."

He added, "I answer only to the head of state and in my 116

days in office, I have received no criticism from the

president, nor from the prime minister."



2012 Pre-Positioning or Payback for Criticizing Nazarbayev?

-------------- --------------



8. (SBU) In a conversation with emboff, opposition weekly

Aina Plyus editor-in-chief Yermurat Bapi said the management

reshuffling at Kazakhstan 1 and statements on the

nationalization of Khabar are part of a grand plan to take

the channels out of Almaty mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov's

control in advance of the 2012 presidential elections.

According to Bapi, Tasmagambetov has ties to a radical Sufi

sect of Islam, which he said 80% of the Kazakhstan 1

employees practiced, (including at a vacant studio on the

premises). The channel also broadcast programs about

Sufism. The tabloid style website Kompromat.kz, reportedly

owned by Aliyev, published similar allegations about a nexus

between Tasmagambetov, Sufism and Kazakhstan 1.



9. (SBU) Comment: Some political observers interpret the

move to nationalize Khabar and threats against KTK as

payback for Nazarbayeva's March 10 and March 17 articles in

Karavan. In those articles she called on the government to

arrest those who "really" had ordered Sarsenbaiuly's murder

and cast doubt on the official version of former

administration insider turned oppositionist Nurmanbek

Nurkadilov's suicide. Such open questioning of the official

versions of high profile cases may have crossed a "red

line," and provoked recrimination from the authorities. If

true, it is hard to imagine former presidential advisor

Yertysbayev taking such action against Nazarbayeva's and her

husband's media interests without the approval of the

President himself. End comment.



Ordway