12 July 2006
FREE EXPRESSION GROUPS SLAM AMENDED MEDIA LAW
The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has signed into law a bill that gives the government vast powers to shut down independent and opposition media outlets, a move harshly criticised by Adil Soz, ARTICLE 19, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Freedom House, the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
On 5 July 2006, Nazarbayev signed the bill "On Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Matters related to Mass Media" despite vigorous protests from free expression groups and other organisations.
The legislation makes it mandatory for all media outlets to register for a licence. It forbids any media outlet that uses the name of a previously closed media outlet from registering. Editors of previously banned media outlets can be barred from working for other publications, and media outlets must re-register whenever they undergo administrative changes, such as a new mailing address or new staff. Those who ignore the rules can be punished by stiff fines or risk being shut down.
Tamara Kaleyeva, president of the Almaty-based Adil Soz, says the legislation could be used as a pretext for the government to deny registration to independent and opposition media, to harass them with fines, and threaten them with closure.
ARTICLE 19 says the new law violates Kazakhstan's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty it ratified in January 2006. The treaty places a legally binding obligation on governments to respect and promote freedom of expression. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, which oversees states' compliance with the treaty, has stated that overly harsh registration requirements violate the right to freedom of expression.
According to Freedom House, the new law compounds an already deteriorating press freedom situation in Kazakhstan, where media outlets are either state-owned or controlled by members of Nazarbayev's family and political allies. The few independent media outlets that do exist face tremendous legal harassment." Despite [U.S.] Vice President Cheney's recent praise of political development in Kazakhstan, the country has little to be proud of," says Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor.
Visit these links:
- Adil Soz: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/75489/ and http://www.adilsoz.kz/
- WAN: http://www.wan-press.org/article11412.html
- ARTICLE 19's Legal Analysis of the Bill: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/analysis/kazakhstan-media-law.pdf
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/europe/kazakh05july06na.html
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?index=4052&Language=EN
- Freedom House: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=396
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