US embassy cable - 05ALMATY794

UNCLAS  ALMATY 000794 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE), EUR/PPD (JBASEDOW), EUR/ACE 
(MO'NEAL/ESMITH), DRL/PHD (PDAVIS) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KPAO, KDEM, KZ, POLITICAL 
SUBJECT:  DCK NEWSPAPER SOZ CLOSED BY COURT ORDER 
 
Ref:  Almaty 545 
 
1.  (SBU).  SUMMARY.  Democratic Choice of Kazakshtan's 
(DCK) newspaper, Soz ("Word"), has been closed down via 
official court order.  On January 31, an inter-district 
economic court ordered the newspaper to pay the National 
Security Committee (KNB) 5 million tenge ($38,500) in 
damages for a September 2004 article that alleged the KNB 
was spying on leaders of the opposition Ak Zhol party.  On 
February 11, the same court told the paper to suspend 
publishing, and froze the financial assets and physical 
property of its owner and publisher.  Fighting on against 
the odds, Soz resurfaced on February 25 as an insert in 
Respublika, another opposition weekly well-known for its 
defiance of the authorities.  In discussing the rulings 
against Soz, media defense advocates point to a number of 
factors that indicate a calculated effort to silence 
critical, independent media.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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Court Orders Soz to Pay KNB $38,500 for Libel 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) On January 31, the inter-district economic court 
of Almaty ordered the weekly Kazakh-Russian language 
newspaper, Soz (Word), to pay the KNB (Komitet 
Natsional'noy Bezopasnosti) 5 million tenge ($38,500) for 
maligning the KNB's "business reputation."  The KNB filed 
suit in the court in December 2004 in response to Soz's 
September 23 article, alleging that "National Security 
Committee officers followed the leaders of the Ak Zhol 
party."  The article referred to an incident in September 
2004, when Ak Zhol party members claimed KNB officers kept 
them under surveillance and followed them to a restaurant. 
The court ruled that defense lawyer Sergey Utkin failed to 
prove the KNB had followed Ak Zhol party members, and that 
therefore the allegation in the article did "not correspond 
to reality."  [Note:  Utkin asked to call Ak Zhol party 
members as witnesses, but the judge denied the request.] 
Besides the fine, the judge ordered the paper to print a 
retraction on the front page, but it has so far refused to 
do so.  Navigator.kz, a progressive, online news source, 
published the same allegation and, apparently at the 
request of the KNB, did post a retraction. 
 
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Court Orders Soz to Suspend Publication 
--------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) Less than two weeks later, on February 11, the 
same court ordered Soz to suspend publication and froze the 
financial assets and property of the newspaper's owner, Ak 
Tas LLP and its publisher, List-Info LLP.  At a February 17 
news conference in Almaty, Utkin said that the order, 
following the libel judgment, proved that the KNB had 
intended to shut the newspaper down, and not just receive 
compensation for damages to the agency's reputation.  He 
said Soz, as an opposition newspaper, had limited 
opportunities to generate income through advertising in any 
case, but after being ordered to cease publication, the 
newspaper would not be able to raise any funds to pay the 
fine.  [Note:  the paper was supported financially by the 
Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan political party, which the 
courts also ordered liquidated, per reftel.]  According to 
the civil code, a court ruling goes into effect only if it 
has not been appealed.  Utkin said that the paper would 
appeal both the libel judgment and the order to cease 
publishing to the Almaty City Court; that hearing is 
scheduled for March 9. 
 
4.  (SBU) Soz was a nationwide weekly, published in both 
Kazakh and Russian, with a circulation of 34,800, and 
possibly two or three times higher, given the local custom 
of sharing newspapers to save money.  In the case of Soz, 
editor-in-chief Sharip Kurakbayev said the paper was passed 
hand to hand because many kiosks refused to sell it. 
Although it had only been publishing for two years, Soz had 
gained a loyal following that appreciated the way the paper 
pushed the limits and defied authorities. 
 
5.  (SBU) Tamara Kaleyeva, head of the free-speech NGO Adil 
Soz (Just Word), questioned the premise by which a tax- 
supported government agency could file suit for damage to 
its "business reputation."  She noted that Kazakhstan's 
laws do not limit the amount of compensation for moral 
damage, and only specify that fines be "reasonable and 
 
sufficient."  "A question arises," she said.  "Sufficient 
for what?  To make them bankrupt?" 
 
------------------------------------- 
Soz Re-Issued as Insert in Respublika 
------------------------------------- 
 
 
6.  (SBU) In a typical demonstration of defiance, Soz 
editor-in-chief Sharip Kurakbayev gave an interview for the 
February 18 edition of opposition weekly Epokha, in which 
he said his paper would continue publishing, despite the 
court rulings.  Indeed, Soz re-surfaced February 25 under 
its own masthead and with a funereal black border as an 
insert in the opposition weekly Respublika, another 
opposition newspaper well-known for its problems with the 
authorities.  [Note:  The editorial staff of the Assandi 
Times started publishing Respublika in August, 2004, after 
the Assandi Times was forced to close as a result of a 
$385,000 libel judgment.]  The insert featured an interview 
with chairman of the Coordinating Council of Democratic 
Forces chairman Zharmakhan Tuyakbay on the problems and 
prospects of Kazakhstan's political opposition, along with 
critical commentary by opposition leaders on President 
Nazarbayev's annual address. 
 
7. (SBU) COMMENT.  In the rulings against Soz, media 
defense advocates point out a number of factors that 
indicate a calculated effort to silence critical, 
independent media.  First is the KNB's decision to file 
suit with Almaty's inter-district economic court.  This 
particular court offers procedural advantages to accusers, 
since it is supposed to decide litigation between entities 
that can legally be defined as "economic" and those 
entities can then be ordered by a judge to cease activity 
immediately, without any warning.  In an administrative 
court, the law allows for a warning to be issued, an 
interval of time for the accused to comply, followed by a 
fine or suspension of activities. 
 
8.  (SBU) COMMENT.  A second factor cited is Soz's tie to 
DCK.  Observers believe that once the prosecutor filed suit 
to have DCK shut down, the newspaper that publicized DCK's 
activities and opinions became a target.  Finally, Soz 
heightened its profile through its defiance of the 
authorities.  Other news organizations, when ordered to 
comply with rulings by courts or other government entities, 
have done so to continue publishing.  This was the case 
with Navigator.kz, which issued a retraction of the 
surveillance story allegations.  It remains to be seen if 
Soz will be able to continue such defiance through using 
other, novel avenues of publication such as its February 25 
supplement in Respublika. 
 
9.  Dushanbe minimize considered. 
 
Ordway 
 
 
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