Press freedom deteriorates ahead of presidential election

Press freedom is under pressure in Kazakhstan in the run-up to presidential elections slated for early December, according to media freedom groups. "There have been too many violations of press freedom in the country in the past few days, as the government attempts to gag all those who could embarrass it ahead of the 4 December presidential poll," Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based international press freedom watchdog, said on Monday. Over the past week, an opposition Internet site has been banned, five journalists have been arrested, although later released, and two editions of independent newspapers have been seized in Central Asia's largest state, RSF added. Moreover, opposition website Navi.kz, formerly Navigator.kz has come in for harassment. On 13 October, the Kazakh Network Information Centre (KazNIC), that runs .kz domain names, cancelled the domain name Navi.kz, forcing the site to change its address to navikz.net. On 14 October, a court in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty banned the domain names "Navigator" and "Navi" in both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. In response, the editorial board again changed the name, to Mizinov.net. On Wednesday, five journalists were arrested in Almaty, during a clampdown on the main opposition movement "For a Just Kazakhstan", RSF reported. Saya Issa, of the daily Svoboda Slova, Olesya Gassanova and Almas Nurdos of news portal Stan.kz, Ruslan Sapabekov, of the weekly Jouma-Times and Eldess Myrzakhmetov, of the weekly Soz-Respublika, were arrested without explanation and their lawyers were refused to the right to see them, the watchdog maintained. "There are more than 2,000 media outlets in Kazakhstan, but out of that number there is hardly a dozen opposition outlets, which are constantly under pressure," Tamara Kaleeva, head of the Almaty-based Adil Soz press freedom NGO, told IRIN earlier this month. Adil Soz said it had registered many cases of opposition newspapers being arbitrarily impounded. "The number of registered cases alone is 60. In reality the figure is much higher," Kaleeva maintained. Echoing that view, RSF said that on 19 October police in the Medeu district of Almaty seized 50,000 copies of the opposition daily Svoboda Slova, accusing it of "damaging the honour of the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev", after the daily published a word-for-word exchange between the Kazakh head of state and a CNN journalist who had asked him if he wasn’t just a "simple dictator". A day later, police seized the entire print run of the weekly Zhuma-Times, after surrounding the print works of Daouir that also publishes Svoboda Slova. Besides impounding newspapers, media activists say that there is also pressure on printing houses not to publish opposition views or articles. Salla Nazarenko from the Toronto-based International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), another media freedom watchdog, criticised the authorities for clamping down on the opposition press, with less than two months before the polls. "Pluralism in Kazakhstan is considered as discussion, exchange of thoughts and views only in those frames pre-defined by President Nazarbayev and his entourage," she said. Another challenge for press freedom is hurdles created by the authorities for the registration of new media outlets, Rozlana Taukenova, head of the local 'Journalists in Trouble' NGO, said. "On the eve of elections there is an atmosphere of pressure and scrutinising for political loyalty among journalists in Kazakhstan. Due to the same reasons, new press outlets are not registered."