Participants at an annual gathering of Kazakhstan’s journalist community have called for authorities to ease tight restrictions on freedom of the media.
Opposition leader Amirzhan Kosanov took the floor after a panel discussion in Almaty on November 27 to demand an end to what he described as de facto “censorship” and for dissident voices to be given access to the mainstream media. Kazakhstan’s opposition has long been marginalized from the media, and the situation has deteriorated since the courts last year closed down dozens of independent media outlets in the wake of late 2011's fatal unrest in western Kazakhstan.
The panel discussion at the sixth Media Kuryltay (“council” or “assembly”) pitted a government official against a prominent journalist who survived an assassination attempt that many observers suspect was linked to his outspoken reporting. The kuryltay offers a rare opportunity for an exchange of opinions between journalists reflecting all sides of Kazakhstan’s media spectrum – from strongly pro-government to staunch opposition – and bureaucrats from Astana.
Bolat Kalyanbekov, chairman of the Ministry of Culture’s Information and Archive Committee, offered a spirited defense of state media policy, pointing out that the government channels millions of tenge to the media every year. Lukpan Akhmedyarov of the regional Uralskaya Nedelya newspaper in northwestern Kazakhstan, who was lucky to survive a vicious attempt on his life last year, pointed out that the state might be throwing money at loyal elements of the media but this did not bring about greater media freedom.
Arman Shurayev, general director of the popular private KTK TV channel, stepped into the fray by calling for the all-out abolition of state-owned TV channels, which he said would lead to fair competition for broadcasters.
While freedom of the media naturally came up at a time when the few remaining independent outlets in Kazakhstan are operating under enormous pressure, the discussions mostly focused on a broad range of media-related topics that are less controversial, from digital broadcasting and online formats to advertising and crowd funding.
[Editor’s note: The Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan is one of the Media Kuryltay’s sponsors. The Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan and EurasiaNet.org are separate entities operating under the Open Society Foundations network.]
Joanna Lillis is a journalist based in Almaty and author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan.
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