President’s advisor to dot all i’s and cross all t’s about freedom of press in Kazakhstan at OSCE meeting in Warsaw

Kazakh President's political advisor Yermukhamet Yertysbayev plans to clarify all the issues about media freedom in Kazakhstan at Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, 28 September 2009 - 9 October 2009

"At the OSCE working session I will deliver a report on the freedom of expression and freedom of press in our republic,” Yertysbayev told Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspapers on Tuesday.

He said that "within a two-week work there will be debates on the topics enforced by the opposition parties, movements and NGOs.” “I am ready to join them,” he stated.

"There are plenty of examples when some media outlets in Kazakhstan distort a real picture, or represent the situation as if the authorities are interested in smothering political pluralism,” he told the newspaper.

In Warsaw we plan to dot all i’s and cross all t’s when addressing this topic, he said.

"Unfortunately, Yertsyabve said, “we must admit that in terms of propaganda and counterpropaganda, we -- state agencies, fail to do things 100%.” "We need to acknowledge that our political opponents are quick to respond distorting the picture , concealing the true reasons behind conflicts that are inevitable in any democratic societies, and putting all the blame on the authorities,” he said.

Yertysbaev believes that lawsuits against the media in Kazakhstan are by far a more rare case than in other counties. “Some cases are exaggerated” “to make the impression as if the authorities are deliberately clamping down on the free press." "It’s absolutely unrealistic!” he said.

On the contrary, Yertysbaev said, the freedom of press in Kazakhstan “has no boundaries.”

"How could we not call it a sabotage against the state, when an opposition newspaper had been consistently undermining the image of the backbone bank, calling upon citizens to withdraw their deposits and forecasting an imminent default. Neither the state, nor the authorities sued the publication, the bank did. Doesn’t it have any right to do so in a democratic environment?” he said.

As reported, on September 9 the Medeu Court of Almaty issued a decision in favor of BTA Bank's claim against the opposition weekly Respublika and now the newspaper has to pay the bank 60 million tenge.

A number of public figures along with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, expressed concern over the sanctions that Kazakh authorities impose on the Kazakhstan's newspaper Respublika. "This defamation case is openly hostile towards the free press and is once again a pretext to target the independent media in Kazakhstan," Haraszti said.

For the third week in a row the newspaper has been encountering numerous problems with printing the publication.

Interfax-Kazakhstan