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Kazakhs protest Internet censorship law

While Kazakhstan routinely lavishes glitz and glam on visiting international press, a new domestic policy allows the government to police the Internet in a way that could further isolate local citizens this spring.

On 13 May, several leading Kazakh websites suspended their operations in order to protest a new Internet law adopted on 29 April by the country’s parliament.

“Supporters of the action will boycott the ‘.kz’ domain for the full hour while owners of online resources in Kazakhstan will show an empty webpage with the strike action’s logo on it,” (see image on right) Radio Free Europe reports.

The new law recognises the Internet—including blogs, personal web pages in social networks, comments and chat room messages—as mass media.

Classified as such, the Internet, once a refuge for free speech in Kazakhstan, is now subject to the same restrictive laws as the country’s mass media.

These laws include edicts permitting Kazakhstan’s prosecutor general to shut down online resources that violate Kazakh law—without first consulting a court. Any Kazakh Internet user may also be called to account for their actions online, in the same way journalists or the owners of media outlets can be held legally accountable for what they publish.

This is not the first time protests against this law have transpired in Kazakhstan.

At the Eurasian Media Forum (EMF) in Almaty from 24-26 April, Yevgenia Plakhina, a 24-year-old journalist, clad in a T-shirt bearing the words “CENSORSHIP IN THE ROOM” and “SHHHHHH” stood up during the EMF’s final panel, The Booming Blogosphere, and declared that six of her friends had been arrested for protesting the new law.

Plakhina is involved in an opposition movement to the law that includes reaching out to international organisations.

“We Internet users of Kazakhstan, consider the attempt to introduce these amendments as an attempt to legitimize all violations of human rights which our country’s citizens and local mass media encounter every day,” she wrote in an open letter to the international press, which she circulated at the EMF.

The law, she wrote, “will result in despotism and increased pressure on the independent mass media, which are already the subject of constant attacks from the authorities.”

Plakhina has also created a video illustrating the death of Kazakhstan’s free Internet to rally support for her cause. See it here:

Vladimir Rerikh, an EMF panel moderator, quickly dismissed Plakhina when she interrupted. But the outspoken American author and journalist Danny Schechterdemanded that she continue (see video on left).

“It seems to me that the right to free speech and the right to publish blogs is something that should be supported and not be dismissed here,” Schechter said.

“I think this is very gutsy of her to come in here and take these risks. And those of us that are in the media should respect this and should appreciate it.”

Kazakhstan has hosted the EMF for eight years. Under the direction of Dariga Nazerbayeva, the daughter of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazerbayev, the EMF is a high on glitz. It brings together big wigs in political, financial and media spheres to discuss hot topics in global news.

This year, “crisis” was the forum’s theme of choice. From South Ossetia to Gaza to Wall Street and the death of print journalism, the programme was full of heated discussions on major global stories dominating the world’s news.

Kazakhstan’s own crisis, however, went completely unaddressed until Yevgeniya spoke out during the last panel.

The delay in addressing Kazakh issues is no surprise; the country, which sponsors the “most prominent international media initiative in Central Asia” (according to the EMF website), would probably rather hide its own highly controversial media policies.
Kazakhstan has been deemed “not free” in the Freedom House’s Press Survey 2009 - and in each previous year of the survey. It is in 2009 rated No. 125 out of 175 countries in the Reporters Sans Frontieres’ Press Freedom Index.

Freedom House says the independent press continues to be threatened and harassed in Kazakhstan when it criticises the president or government. Serious journalists run serious risks. To read more about Kazakhstan’s history of media oppression, click here.
These risks will now apply to all Kazakh Internet users.

Proponents of the law say it is in the Kazakh people’s best interest; its intention is to block illegal material: child pornography, terrorism, etc.

Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani blogger and journalist who was a panellist during the EMF session, The Booming Blogosphere, which Plakhina interrupted. He believes there is a case to be made for media regulation online.

“We are discussing regulation in countries in transition, which includes Kazakhstan. Let’s not create a sacred cow like we did with capitalism. ... There’s nothing wrong with regulation — it shouldn’t be excessive. But let the government decide what is best for a certain country.”

Quraishi says unlimited freedom can even sometimes be dangerous.

“Freedom of blogging and expression has been abused for political interference in other countries. ... You are trying to speed up a process that a country is not ready for.”

Plakhina disagrees.

“The information [they are trying to keep us from] with the new law is already illegal. This kind of issue should be regulated by other forms of regulation - criminal law, for example, but not by restrictions against mass media,” she says.

“Citizens of former USSR countries are very critical about all information that is coming from abroad. We are responsible. We are not like children.”

To find out more - Dan Kennedy’s article in The Guardian

Ruth Spencer attended the EMF in Almaty and was a panelist on “The Booming Blogosphere”

Tags: censorship, freedom, internet, kazakhstan, law, mass media, social networking,

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