The Monitoring of violation of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan in June 2000

The district prosecutor R. Toyzhanov and the head of administration of culture information and public consent B. Ayagan sent to the leadership of the newspapers “Do e posle ponedelnika” and “Ponedelnik” letters about the fact that their registration certificates are acknowledged to be invalid.

The newspaper “Ponedelnik” and “Do e posle ponedelnika” was registered in the Ministry of culture information and public consent by the leaders of the newspapers “Nachnem s ponedelnika” V. Marchenko and R. Esergepov in 1999, when courts satisfied the first destructive suits to “Nachnem s ponedelnika”. According to legislation of that time registration certificate was considered to be valid within the year since the day of its registration. However in January, 2000, new “registration regulations” were in power, according to which registration certificate was only valid for the first six months from the day of registration. V. Marchenko and R. Esergepov began to publish the newspaper “Do e posle ponedelnika” in May, 2000, when all of the property of the editorial office of the newspaper “Nachnem s ponedelnika” was confiscated in execution of number of judicial decisions.

Orders and actions of the Administration of culture information and public consent, as well as district prosecutor were not based on law. Not referring to doubtfulness of many provisions of “Registration regulations of mass media”, confirmed by the order of The Ministry of culture information and public consent from 24.12.1999, because in many instances they supplement law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On mass media”, and consequently, in our opinion, contradict it, we need to note the following: the specified regulations according to the paragraph 1 of the article 33 of law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On normative legal acts” for their operation were subject to obligatory publication in the Bulletin of normative legal acts of central executive organs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, produced by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan. According to the paragraph 1 part 1 of the article 36 of the aforementioned law, they began operating in ten days after their publication, due to the. fact that the Regulations do not specify anything else. The Regulations were published in the Bulletin # 3 for March, 2000, and consequently, started operating, including six-month term for beginning of production of newspapers, from April, 2000. However, registration certificate the aforementioned newspapers received in 1999, i.e. before introduction of the shortened term. And because, according to the article 37 of the specified law the normative acts do not refer to relations, appeared before their introduction into operation. We need to recognize that the old term applies to the “Ponedelnik” newspapers. Moreover, the paragraph 24 of the regulations themselves classifies the issue of cancellation of registration to competence of court.

“Ardak”, Shymkent City

The chief editor of the newspaper “Aigak” sent request to the regional office of public prosecutor regarding outgoing data of the newspaper “Ardak” does not include the surname of the chief editor as law requires it. On June 22 he received response signed by the regional prosecutor I. Baktybayev. The response says that the office of public prosecutor send order to the editorial office of the newspaper “Ardak” on elimination of violations.

The article 15 of law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On mass media”, in fact, does include order on obligatory publication of outgoing data, and the prosecutor absolutely correctly rendered the order on elimination of violations of law. But it is difficult to understand: how does the other newspaper relate to the issue?

Mass media, Karaganda City

The distributors of the company “Vision International People Group” spread the open letter in mass media of Karaganda City regarding impermissiveness of free handling of freedom of speech.

On June 8, 2000, this company arranged and conducted charitable action for orphan children in Karaganda City, the total amount of the gifts handed was $ 1500. The materials published then: “Novyi vestnik”, the article of Sergei Tereshenko “Pink bag for 1,5 gran” and the article of Z. Trepyhalskiy “You push them out of the door, they get in the window” in the weekly “Vzglyad”, caused a lot of indignation from the representatives of the company. Their open letter reads: “It is amazing that none of representatives of press come and ask questions from distributors of the company, from invitees or even from children from the orphanage (by the way, none of the journalists who took part in the event were “bribed” by the organizers) following the principles of independent press. So where is the objectivity of granting information?” Appealing to representatives of mass media, the distributors of the company “Vision International People Group” demand refutation of false information.

“Altyn Orda”, Aktobe City

On June 22 the newspaper “Altyn Orda” in Aktyubinsk City distributed to chief editors of Aktyubinky and republican newspapers faxes, which contained the following questions among others:

“1. Don’t you think that Russian-speaking editions (intentionally or because of the circumstances) prepare ground for Europeanization of population of Kazakhstan, culture and etc., including Russian population, whose mentality is almost the opposite (collectivism, family holiness, fear of “shame”, etc.);

2. Do you agree that authority of edition is the “all-mighty founder”? If you do, what shall we do with moral of community, which considers (even powerful!) such press a prostitute (apologize for forced literal use of the word!)

3. So how much a journalist should be paid in our country so his “objective reality” did not define his own “conscience”?

4. If the authority and others of that ilk start to give preference to Kazakh-speaking press, in what direction will rival struggle develop between it and Kazakh-speaking press?

Sincerely, deputy chief editor Dauren Kuat.”

Informational practice of western countries besides legislative requirements knows from long ago that requirements in objectivity and correctness of press, although even there, of course, they have so called “yellow editions”. Codes of business ethics of journalist are introduced and are being implemented in stronger editions. Seems like we to should evaluate our actions not only from the position of legal or illegal, but also from the position of ethical and not ethical.

Mass media, Karaganda City

The editors of the biggest newspapers “Novyi vestnik”, “Vzglyad”, “Sputnik”, “Anons”, “Aviatrek”, “Vechernyaya gazeta”, “Reklama”, appealed to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Premier-Minister with letter. Their letter reads: “Strong opposition of television channels and newspapers lasts for almost one year, not only in Karaganda City, but all over the Republic of Kazakhstan. The cause of the conflict is granting of television program to newspapers… We are tired of illegality from the leadership of television channels, tired to be hostages of their caprices and willfulness. Local television channels look at central ones, and we newspapers, just do not know what to expect for tomorrow. Will we be deprived of programs of television channels “Habar” and “Kazakhstan”? Or all of local television channels? Or any head of local television channel will “ask for” 500 US dollars for the list of programs of his television channel? Or may be one thousand US dollars? Or may be we all will have to close down tomorrow because of this?

Today there is no limit for such fantasies and our fears. We may say that existence of the newspapers is threatened.

In the previous monitoring the Foundation for protection of freedom of speech “Adil soz” numerously gave similar legal analysis of illegality of deprivation of citizens’ rights to receive such mass information, such as program (list) of television channels. This time we have to briefly repeat that the article 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan guarantees this right.