Press-release of Internews-Kazakhstan of June 6,
2002
On May 24, 2002 Almaty municipal court (court of
first instance) rendered a decision on the lawsuit of Rakhat Aliyev
against the representative office of the International organization
“Internews Network” in Kazakhstan on protection of honor and
dignity.
International observers (OSCE center in Almaty,
USAID, International foundation for protection of freedom of speech
“Adil soz”, independent experts and etc.) evaluated conduct of the
legal procedure as “biased”. This could be seen from the behavior of
the opposite party and the judge of Almaty municipal court U.
Yesbergenov. Throughout the entire trial he virtually ignored all
petitions and statements of “Internews Kazakhstan”, which cannot be
said about petitions and statements of the plaintiff.
Rakhat Aliyev, former deputy chairman of the
Committee of National Security of the Republic of Kazakhstan, former
deputy head of the security service of the President of the
republic, now president of the National Olympic Committee (NOK), on
December 5, 2001 submitted statement of claim to Almalinsky district
court of Almaty city on protection of honor and dignity and
compensation of moral damage at the amount of 20 million tenge
(which is approximately 140-150 thousand US dollars) for the article
“Khabarization of the entire country”, which was placed on the
web-site of “Internews Kazakhstan” in August-September 2001
(electronic newsletter “Internews Network - Kazakhstan” # 23 (117)
of 08/20-09/20/2001).
Since the Representative office of “Internews
Network” in Kazakhstan is an international organization, and
according to the legislation, civil cases, where one of the parties
is an international or foreign organization, are to be examined by
regional (and equal to them courts) as courts of first instance. The
case was transferred to the municipal court of Almaty.
Initially the statement of claim contained four
demands. Later the plaintiff withdrew demands, associated with
compensation for moral damage. The remaining points are as follows:
acknowledgement of data as invalid and publication of refutation.
Mr. Aliyev considered the following data untrue,
discrediting his honor and dignity in the public opinion:
“D. Nazarbayeva and her husband - first deputy head
of the Committee of National Security of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Rakhat Aliyev, own or control (directly or indirectly) several
television and radio networks, informally unified into a media
holding (television channels Khabar, KTK, NTK, “ORT-Kazakhstan”,
radio station “Yevropa plus Kazakhstan”, “Hit FM Khabar”, “Russkoye
radio”, “Radio Retro-Karavan; newspapers “Novoye pokoleniye”,
“Karavan”, “Karavan” publishing house, information agency
“Kazakhstan today”, advertising agency “TV-Media and etc.).
Telecommunication Company KATELKO is in the same
row, “Kazakhstan’s broadcasting corporation. In winter of 2000 by
the decree of the government two organizations, who controlled
television and radio transmitting means (transmitters, television
towers, television centers and etc.), were reorganized and rights of
property and use over the state package of stocks of the
newly-fledged organization were handed over to “KVK - Kazakhstan’s
Broadcasting Corporation”, founder of which is a group of legal and
physical entities. Experts ask themselves a question: who would
benefit from privatization of state property?” (Cited as in the
statement of claim).
However, as early as in the statement of claim in
the beginning of the first paragraph an entire sentence was missed:
“Mass media experts say that today all large mass media of
Kazakhstan actually passed into the ownership of members of the
family of the president of the country, or private individuals,
close to presidential circles”
The second paragraph was stated in the following
way: “Telecommunication Company KATELKO is in the same row,
“Kazakhstan’s broadcasting corporation” (in winter of 2000 by the
decree of the government two organizations, who controlled
television and radio transmitting means (transmitters, television
towers, television centers and etc.), were reorganized and rights of
property and use over the state package of stocks of the
newly-fledged organization were handed over to “KVK - Kazakhstan’s
Broadcasting Corporation”, founder of which is a group of legal and
physical entities. Experts ask themselves a question: who would
benefit from privatization of state property?”.
“Internews Kazakhstan” presented a petition on
conduction of literature and linguistic examinations, but was
refused in their conduction. The court satisfied petition of the
plaintiff (R. Aliyev) on conduction of judicial psychological
philological examination, which was executed by Central (Almaty)
scientific-production laboratory of judicial examination in March
2002. The examination was executed with numerous violations - so,
shift of some words in a sentence took place, which inevitably
distorted the text and allowed the experts to draw incorrect, in our
opinion, conclusion, that the article contains data “giving negative
evaluation to the plaintiff”.
On May 30 we received results of the independent
examination (expert conclusion #28/5), which was conducted by the
Guild of linguistic experts on documentation and informational
disputes (Moscow, Russia). The following is the expert conclusion:
the publication does not contain insulting vocabulary, statements,
containing negative evaluation of R. Aliyev’s personality, the
author used opinions and judgments, formulated by other journalists
or persons of informational and political activity, the text was
written in the genre of critical article, essential characteristics
of which include presence of opinions on various important issues
(express one’s thoughts about these issues, raise them, provoke
interest of the public to them - is the professional task of the
journalism).
According to the article 26 of the law of the
Republic of Kazakhstan of June 23 1999 “On mass media”, chief editor
(editor), as well as a journalist do not bear responsibility for
dissemination in mass media of untrue data:
1. in case these data were contained in official
report and documents;
2. in case these data were received from information
agencies;
3. in case they literal reproduction of official
speeches of deputies of representative bodies, official individuals
of state bodies, organizations and citizens”.
Fragment of the text cited in the statement of claim
is not personal statement of the journalist or editor, but virtually
reproduce literary information, published in the official document -
Report of the State Department of the USA on practice in the sphere
of human rights for 1999, and data, contained in materials, placed
on other web-sites and in print editions, as well as data, contained
in speeches of organizations and citizens. Analogous information in
various forms is also contained in number of publications on web
sites and in print mass media (including, the web site of Caspian
information agency).
However, Almaty municipal court did not consider the
report of the State department of the USA on practice in the sphere
of human rights for 1999, annual report of non-governmental
organization “Committee to protect journalists” as official reports
and official documents, did not take into consideration references
to other sources and having referred to the results of the
examination, which are being disputed by the defendant
(“Internews”), on May 24 rendered a decision: to acknowledge data,
disseminated by the newsletter “Internews Kazakhstan”, untrue and
publish refutation.
Today “Internews Kazakhstan” submitted appellate
appeal to the Board on civil cases of the Supreme court of the
Republic of Kazakhstan.
“Internews Kazakhstan” believes that only normal
civilized discussion of problems of the society and mass media will
allow finding rational ways of their solution. In addition, if there
is mass media monopoly in Kazakhstan, if experts discuss this
problem, than no bans, lawsuits and threats can make people keep
silence.
We evaluate this lawsuit as pressure on
international public organization, working, among others, on support
projects to the Republic of Kazakhstan. This lawsuit disputes the
right of international public organizations for personal evaluation
of situation in Kazakhstan, right for personal opinion of experts,
writing about Kazakhstan, right for referring to specialists’
opinions and comments. |