VZCZCXRO7689
RR RUEHAST RUEHDBU
DE RUEHTA #1750/01 1371017
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171017Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY ALMATY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5344
INFO RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 6985
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 1743
RUEHNT/AMEMBASSY TASHKENT 7531
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 7568
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0207
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2052
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0341
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 1244
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1575
RUEHAST/USOFFICE ASTANA
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2100

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ALMATY 001750 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (JMUDGE), SCA/PPD (JBASEDOW), DRL/PHD 
(CKUCHTA-HELBLING) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KDEM KZ
SUBJ:  KAZAKHSTAN:  INFORMATION MINISTER REPLACES MANAGERS 
AT NATIONAL TELEVISION STATIONS 
 
Ref:  A) Almaty 485, B) Almaty 1144 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Plans by the Minister of Information to 
improve the professionalism at one national television 
station and to nationalize another partly owned by the 
president's daughter have provoked a public feud.  According 
to some analysts, the change in management at the official 
broadcaster was intended to snuff out the alleged influence 
of radical Islamists and to consolidate control of 
influential television media ahead of the 2012 presidential 
elections.  Others see the minister's moves as retaliation 
for the daughter's articles questioning the official 
versions of the deaths of oppositionists Sarsenbaiuly and 
Nurkadilov.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) On April 18, Minister of Information and Culture 
Yermukhambet Yertysbayev, until recently an advisor in the 
Presidential Administration, dismissed Galym Dosken from his 
position as chairman of official national broadcaster 
"Kazakhstan 1" and appointed Nurtyleu Imangaliyev in his 
place.  More than 120 staff members resigned in protest, and 
said they were not satisfied with the minister's public 
explanation that the change was made to improve the level of 
professionalism.  Yertysbayev's public comments revealed 
that changes at Khabar were also being planned:  "My task is 
to ensure a high quality state information policy, at least 
at state TV channels like Kazakhstan 1, even if it means 
restoring full control over Khabar to make sure there is no 
manipulation."  As for the employees who resigned, he said 
the new management would not ask them to stay, and that 
there were plenty of other journalists at the station. 
(Note:  The parent company, Kazakhstanskaya Tele Radio 
Korporatsiya, has over 1,500 employees. End note.) 
 
¶3. (U) Yertysbayev provided fuller explanations of his 
intentions in interviews with the opposition newspapers 
Respublika and Epokha.  In the April 21 Respublika he 
remarked, "Being located between Russia and China in the 
Muslim world, Kazakhstan should control the electronic 
media, in a good sense of this word. . .  More than 82 
foreign TV channels broadcast on the territory of 
Kazakhstan.  That's why my task is to defend the state 
information policy, to enforce Article 20 of the 
Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech, and to 
protect the interests of all journalists." 
 
¶4. (U) In his April 28 interview with Epokha, Yertysbayev 
said he intended to restore the controlling interest of the 
state in the second official channel, Khabar, which is 
partly owned by the President's daughter, Dariga 
Nazarbayeva.  The first move may have been taken on May 5, 
when Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maulen 
Ashimbayev was elected Chairman of the Khabar Agency's Board 
of Directors at a special Khabar shareholders' meeting. 
 
¶5. (U) In the same interview Yertysbayev also threatened to 
revoke the broadcasting license of KTK TV, owned by 
Nazarbayeva's husband First Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat 
Aliyev, for not broadcasting enough Kazakh language 
programming as required by law, and for the manner in which 
the station reported on the Sarsenbaiuly murder 
investigation (Ref B).  "Everything that KTK broadcasts is a 
serious violation of the country's constitution, which 
stipulates that citizens have the right to receive truthful 
information.  However, in this case [reporting on the 
investigation] they did not receive it.  They received lies, 
a distortion of the truth."  (Note:  In February, KTK and 
Karavan, the weekly tabloid owned by Aliyev, reported the 
demands made by For a Just Kazakhstan (FJK) representatives 
for the resignation of Senate speaker Nurtay Abykayev, and 
FJK's appeals to the authorities to ensure the safety of 
others arrested for the murder.  End note.) 
 
¶6. (U) Nazarbayeva's response to the information minister's 
plans came on May 11 in a statement from the Congress of 
Journalists, which she chairs.  The statement called for 
 
ALMATY 00001750  002 OF 002 
 
 
Yertysbayev's resignation, alleging that he had used 
authoritarian means in forcibly rotating personnel, and in 
toughening the state information policy.  In commenting on 
the statement Nazarbayeva said, "My colleagues and I 
initiated this statement about Yertysbayev's immediate 
resignation because we believe that his activities in the 
mass media are incompetent and getting worse." 
 
¶7. (U) Yertysbayev responded publicly the next day, telling 
journalists, "Kazakhstan's Congress of Journalists is 
interfering with the work of the executive-administrative 
bodies of power and is crudely violating the law and 
constitution by attempting to influence the head of state." 
He added, "I answer only to the head of state and in my 116 
days in office, I have received no criticism from the 
president, nor from the prime minister." 
 
2012 Pre-Positioning or Payback for Criticizing Nazarbayev? 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) In a conversation with emboff, opposition weekly 
Aina Plyus editor-in-chief Yermurat Bapi said the management 
reshuffling at Kazakhstan 1 and statements on the 
nationalization of Khabar are part of a grand plan to take 
the channels out of Almaty mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov's 
control in advance of the 2012 presidential elections. 
According to Bapi, Tasmagambetov has ties to a radical Sufi 
sect of Islam, which he said 80% of the Kazakhstan 1 
employees practiced, (including at a vacant studio on the 
premises).  The channel also broadcast programs about 
Sufism.  The tabloid style website Kompromat.kz, reportedly 
owned by Aliyev, published similar allegations about a nexus 
between Tasmagambetov, Sufism and Kazakhstan 1. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment:  Some political observers interpret the 
move to nationalize Khabar and threats against KTK as 
payback for Nazarbayeva's March 10 and March 17 articles in 
Karavan.  In those articles she called on the government to 
arrest those who "really" had ordered Sarsenbaiuly's murder 
and cast doubt on the official version of former 
administration insider turned oppositionist Nurmanbek 
Nurkadilov's suicide.  Such open questioning of the official 
versions of high profile cases may have crossed a "red 
line," and provoked recrimination from the authorities.  If 
true, it is hard to imagine former presidential advisor 
Yertysbayev taking such action against Nazarbayeva's and her 
husband's media interests without the approval of the 
President himself.  End comment. 
 
Ordway