OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: STATEMENT ON JOURNALIST

UNCLAS STATE 005392 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM OSCE KZ SUBJECT: OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: STATEMENT ON JOURNALIST ARREST IN KAZAKHSTAN ¶1. Post is authorized to make the following statement at the January 22, 2009, meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna: Begin Text: Madam Chairwoman, The United States notes the concern expressed by the Representative on Freedom of the Media Miklos Haraszti and by the European Union on the case of Ramazan Yesergepov, the editor of the weekly Alma-Ata Info. Mr. Yesergepov is under arrest for allegedly disclosing state secrets while publishing internal documents of the Kazakh National Security Committee on November 21. Mr. Haraszti has long campaigned for shield laws for journalists, including in my own country. And we agree with Mr. Haraszti that conflicts around unauthorized disclosures of national security documents are a sign of the growing maturation of freedom of the media in any society. This does not mean that any national security document should be disclosed, but clearly it is appropriate that there be discussions of which types of documents might justifiably be covered by such restrictions. For instance, documents related to tax evasion or those whose revelation would simply be embarrassing to a government or persons in positions of power would not be expected to meet that threshold in modern democracies. We hope this incident and the international scrutiny surrounding it will further stimulate debate in Kazakhstan on these very issues. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. End text. BURNS