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Kazakstan's opposition
protests crackdown on independent media
ALMATY, Kazakstan - A Kazak opposition party protested Tuesday a series of media
closures that it said were part of a government crackdown on independent journalism.
In the first four days of March, a popular political talk show was pulled off the air, a
local television station critical of the government saw its license suspended and a
national station was knocked off the air without explanation.
"On order from President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a single-minded campaign to destroy
the independent press is being carried out," political analyst Nurbulat Masanov said
at a news conference organized by the Democratic Choice of Kazakstan party.
Since last week, the political talk show "Social Contract," which ran on a
non-state television station and was supported by a grant from the foundation of U.S.
billionaire George Soros, has been off the air. Democratic Choice said the popular show
was pulled after a government official called the station and demanded it be taken off.
The station refused to comment.
In the northern city of Pavlodar, the independent Irbis station was prohibited from
broadcasting for three months as a result of a lawsuit brought by the Information
Ministry. The ministry accused the station of broadcasting pornography when it aired the
movie "Intimacy," which won the Berlin film festival's Golden Bear award last
year.
The station's chief editor, Askar Shamshekov, suggested the suspension was intended to the
station, which reportedly widely on government corruption, into bankruptcy.
"Three months without broadcasting and we'll have nothing with which to pay
communications fees and workers' salaries," he said.
The final blow came Monday, when screens tuned into the national independent station TAN,
which normally broadcasts from a state-owned transmitter, went blank. One of the station's
owners, former Transport and Communications Minister Mukhtar Ablyazov, said officials told
him it was a technical problem that would be correctly shortly. However, a day went by and
there was no change, Ablyazov said.
Nazarbayev, who has led the Central Asian country since the breakup of the Soviet Union,
launched limited democratic reforms in the early 1990s but has since shown little
tolerance for dissent. His re-election in 1999 was criticized by international monitors as
being rife with fraud.
In January, he ordered his government to take a tougher line with the opposition, saying
politicians and the media should be held responsible for their statements.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...5/ap_to_po/kazakstan_media_1
By ROZLANA TAUKINA, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo.com
11 Mar 2002 |
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