US embassy cable - 05ALMATY3277

UNCLAS  ALMATY 003277 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EUR/CACEN (JMUDGE), EUR/PPD (JBASEDOW), EUR/ACE 
(ESMITH/JMCKANE), DRL/PHD (CKUCHTA-HEIBLING) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KPAO, KDEM, KZ, 2005 Election, POLITICAL 
SUBJECT: OMNIBUS OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS IN KAZAKHSTAN 
 
Ref: Almaty 1953 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY. This is the first of a series of bi- 
monthly cables on developments among Kazakhstan's media. 
Most of the incidents reported here indicate a pattern of 
restrictions against editorially independent media in the 
run-up to the December presidential elections.  To their 
great credit, Kazakhstan's independent journalists continue 
to push back and to find innovative ways to make their 
voices heard.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Sarsenbaiuly Loses Appeal, Ordered to Pay $7,635 Damages 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
2. (U) On July 20, the Almaty city court upheld the June 13 
verdict by the Medeu regional court in Khabar v. 
Sarsenbaiuly.  Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, the former Minister 
of Information, and current co-chair of the opposition 
party Real Ak Zhol, was ordered to publish a retraction and 
pay 1 million tenge ($7,635) to the Khabar joint stock 
company.  The court ruled that Sarsenbaiuly had 
disseminated information damaging the company's reputation. 
Sarsenbaiuly stated in an interview with the opposition 
weekly "Respublika: Delovoye Obozreniye" (circulation 
40,000) last October that the Khabar Agency was part of 
Dariga Nazarbayeva's media monopoly, which concentrated 
ownership among administration loyalists and thus stifled 
media independence in Kazakhstan. Sarsenbaiuly has filed an 
appeal and vowed to resist any attempts to make him pay 
damages. 
 
Cable Provider Temporarily Drops TV Stations 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) From July 25 to August 7, the Almaty channels TAN 
and Channel 31 were dropped from the Alma-TV cable 
television package for about two weeks without explanation. 
Technical representatives of the two channels say they had 
not broken any terms of their transmission contract.  Alma- 
TV management ignored the channels' requests for an 
explanation.  About 100,000 subscribers were affected, 
almost all in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city.  Although 
Channel 31 at times bends to pressure from the 
administration, it is considered by its peers to offer the 
most objective and balanced television news in Kazakhstan. 
Media observers interpret the unexplained lapse as attempt 
by the Dariga Nazarbayeva monopoly, which includes Alma-TV, 
to intimidate a business competitor, the Channel 31 holding 
company, which owns Channel 31 and TAN. 
 
President Bush's Letter Used for Political Gain 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
4. (SBU) The Presidential Press Service released portions 
of President Bush's June letter to President Nazarbayev to 
the official daily Kazakhstanskaya Pravda (circulation 
70,000), which published the excerpts on the front page 
August 2 under the banner headline "Strategic Partnership." 
The published excerpts covered almost everything in the 
letter - including the call for democratic reforms and 
clean elections - but excluded the comments on the draft 
NGO legislation.  Pro-government daily Liter (circulation 
32,000/week) said that the letter showed Washington would 
support Nazarbayev's candidacy. Pro-government weekly 
Delovaya Nedelya (circulation 10,600) also considered the 
letter a positive sign and said the opposition media would 
try to divine a critical tone in it.  (Note: No opposition 
media reported on the letter, most likely because the text 
was not shared with them.) 
 
Opposition Candidate Ignored by Mainstream Media 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
5. (SBU) On August 17, the prosecutor sent a letter to 
Zharmakhan Tuyakbay, the chairman of the opposition 
movement For a Just Kazakhstan (FJK), warning him that any 
travel he conducted would be construed as pre-election 
campaigning, which is illegal until after the Majilis 
announces the date for elections.  In response, Tuyakbay 
the next day issued an open letter to President Nazarbayev 
denying the charges and accusing Nazarbayev of violating 
the law.  The national television stations and official, 
centrist, and progressive newspapers ignored the letter.  A 
handful of opposition print and online media, which have a 
considerably smaller audience, published portions of 
Tuyakbay's response. Many printed only Tuyakbay's denial 
 
and omitted the accusation against Nazarbayev. 
 
Express K Ordered to Publish Retraction, Pay 5 M Tenge 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
6. (U) On August 17, the Almaty city court upheld the 
ruling by the Almaty economic inter-district court on a 
case filed by Kazkommertsbank against Ekspress K for an 
article last September intimating that Kazkommertsbank was 
on the verge of bankruptcy.  Ekspress K was supposed to 
publish a retraction within 10 days of the ruling and pay 5 
million tenge ($37,000) in damages.  In an interview with 
RFE/RL Radio Azzattyk, former Ekspress K editor Igor 
Shakhnovich said he would not publish a retraction.  He 
said, "They put the hammer on trial, but the hammer was 
wielded by Yuriy Nesterenko, Vice President of the Eurasian 
Industrial Association, and his boss Aleksandr Mashkevich." 
On September 1, Kazkommertsbank issued a press release 
announcing that the bank intends to exercise its right to 
enforce the implementation of the court ruling, as allowed 
in the civic code. 
 
Ministry of Information vs. Respublika Ruling Postponed 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
7. (U) On September 6, the inter-district economic court in 
Almaty postponed the adjudication of a claim filed by the 
Ministry of Culture, Information, and Sport against 
Respublika: Delovoye Obozreniye, the weekly financed by the 
Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan opposition movement.  As 
reported reftel, on May 4, the ministry ordered Respublika 
to stop publishing and revoked its registration.  The 
ministry claimed the transfer of Respublika from one owner 
to another was illegal and thus provided legal 
justification for shutting the paper down.  The ministry's 
decree followed two previous court rulings demanding the 
liquidation of the newspaper's parent company, Bastau, Ltd. 
The paper re-appeared as Syet'.kz ("net") on May 13. 
 
Supreme Court Shuts Down Syet'.kz; Harassment Follows 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
8. (SBU) The battle continued with the attempt by Almaty 
city police to stop distribution of the May 13 Syet'.kz, 
claiming the paper was not registered with the information 
ministry.  Syet'.kz claimed to have registered on March 18, 
2003.  As required by law, they issued one paper within six 
months of registering, on September 17, 2003, and sent a 
copy to the ministry.  The ministry said they annulled the 
registration April 30, 2004.  In June 2005, Astana's city 
court ruled the ministry had the right to cancel the 
registration because the owners did not inform the ministry 
of a change in the owner's address, and the owners failed 
to send their first issues to the appropriate 
organizations.  On August 25, the Supreme Court upheld the 
verdict of the city court. 
 
9.(SBU) The ruling signaled the end of Syet'.kz, but it 
reappeared on September 9 as Pyatoye Izmereniye (The Fifth 
Dimension.)  Because printers refuse to print the paper, 
the staff is printing it on 11x16 broadsheets in the 
office, and hiring their own drivers to distribute it to 
vendors.  The publisher issued a press release describing 
how a group of five men, two in police uniforms, showed up 
at the Syet'.kz editorial offices at 21:30 on September 7 
demanding to be let in to check passports and/or confirm 
there were no "burglars" in the house.  The staff believe 
the incident is just one example of the harassment, which 
will be repeated. 
 
Opposition Newspapers Seized 
---------------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) At a September 1 press conference, editors of the 
opposition papers Epokha, Syet'.kz, Apta.kz, and Data 
Nedeli-Zhuma Times said that their printed issues were 
being seized by the authorities.  Epokha editor-in-chief 
Bakhytzhan Mukushev said the editors were used to 
occasional confiscations, when the print runs were 15,000- 
20,000, but the harassment has recently intensified as the 
papers increase their volume up to 100,000.  (Note: the 
opposition is printing large volumes of special election 
editions as part of their election campaigning).  Without 
commenting on the issue of depriving the public of 
alternative points of view, Mukushev said the confiscations 
meant financial losses, considering the average 13 to 18 
 
tenge cost of one issue multiplied by the total circulation 
- as much as $13,300.  Yermurat Bapi of Data Nedeli-Zhuma 
Times said there was no point in appealing to the 
government and recommended publicizing the confiscations to 
international human rights organizations and the public. 
 
Highest Circulation Independent Weekly Under Pressure 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
11. (SBU) The editors of Vremya, Kazakhstan's highest 
circulation news weekly (180,000), told emboff September 3 
that the paper is being pressured by the authorities to 
refuse print orders from opposition newspapers.  Vremya is 
one of Kazakhstan's few profitable newspapers, because it 
owns the printing facility which it uses to print other 
publications, including opposition papers.  Echoing the 
comment made at the September 1 press conference, Vremya's 
editor said most of the opposition's orders had averaged 
20,000 per week per paper, but the orders have increased to 
100,000 each, and many opposition editors plan print runs 
up to 500,000 as the election campaigns proceed. 
 
12. (U) Minimize for Dushanbe considered. 
 
Asquino 
 
 
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