VZCZCXRO6767
RR RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTA #2074/01 1640843
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130843Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY ALMATY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5729
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0213
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2058
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0351
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 1594
RUEHAST/USOFFICE ASTANA
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2117

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ALMATY 002074 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CACEN (JMUDGE), SCA/PPD (JBASEDOW), EUR/ACE 
(ESMITH/JMCKANE), DRL/PHD (CKUCHTA-HELBLING) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KDEM KZ
SUBJ:  KAZAKHSTAN:  DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO MEDIA LAW RAISE 
CONCERNS 
 
Ref:  A) Almaty 485, B) Almaty 1750 
 
ALMATY 00002074  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. Political parties and media defense 
organizations in Kazakhstan have mounted a public campaign 
opposing amendments to Kazakhstan's media law introduced to 
the parliament on May 30 by Information Minister 
Yermukhamet Yertysbayev. The draft amendments leave open 
some legal loopholes to be exploited by opposition media 
and impose other measures that could shut down defiant 
outlets. The controversy highlights a public feud between 
the minister, considered to be carrying out the president's 
orders, and the president's eldest daughter and 
parliamentarian, Dariga Nazarbayeva. Nazarbayeva has led 
the Congress of Journalists in preparing their own revised 
draft media law, to be presented to parliament June 14. 
Neither the proposed amendments nor the draft law include 
the anti-monopoly clauses or simplified registration 
procedures desired by Kazakhstan's media defense advocates. 
End summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Following through on plans announced in April to 
enforce Kazakhstan's "informational security," Information 
Minister Yermukhamet Yertysbayev on May 30 submitted a 
package of amendments to the Mazhilis, Kazakhstan's lower 
house of parliament. The most controversial amendments 
would ban anyone who had previously lost a libel judgment 
from being a director of any other medium; allow media 
organizations to be closed down for technical violations; 
require a government license for printing houses; and 
require papers to publish every three months. Media would 
have to re-register upon any changes in editor, address, or 
frequency of publishing or broadcasting. The amendments 
would also impose a deposit of 5,000 monthly calculated 
indices as indemnity against potential libel judgments. 
(Note: Each MCI is 1,030 tenge; at the current rate of 
exchange, 5,000 MCIs is about $39,000.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) In a meeting May 19 with Helsinki Commission 
Deputy Chief of Staff Dorothy Taft, Yertysbayev said the 
amendments were intended to improve the quality of 
journalism and ensure that only regularly publishing media 
would be registered. He said that of the 6,646 currently 
registered papers, only 2,438 publish, because under the 
current law papers only have to publish once every six 
months. He said the irregularly publishing newspapers were 
opposition papers that were issued during the 2004 
parliamentary and 2005 presidential elections to "slander 
and offend the president." He said he wanted to change the 
law so the papers publish responsibly and continually, 
"like real newspapers." 
 
Rift in Government Solidarity? 
------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (U) Politically diverse parties and media organizations 
have come together to publicly condemn the proposed 
amendments and urge the parliament to reject them. An 
appeal signed by a dozen media groups and disseminated at a 
press conference June 5 described the amendments as "a step 
backward toward stagnation and totalitarianism" that could 
"kill freedom of speech in Kazakhstan" and "disgrace 
Kazakhstan in the eyes of the world." The signatories 
included the pro-government Union of Journalists, the 
Congress of Journalists headed by Asar party leader Dariga 
Nazarbayeva, and the media defense organization Adil Syoz 
(The Just Word.) The opposition party Ak Zhol, pro- 
government Asar, and the unregistered opposition party Alga 
released their own statement June 6 calling the amendments 
"one more bludgeon" to be used against independent and 
opposition media. 
 
¶5. (U) The 35 to 25 vote in parliament accepting the 
amendments for consideration likewise reflected divergent 
views. Showing either chutzpah or a wry sense of humor, 
Yertysbayev had asked the parliament to "take pity" and 
pass the amendments without discussion by June 24, because 
the information ministry had had to evacuate their offices 
after a fire damaged their building. However, Nazarbayeva, 
Asar party member Sergey Kiselyev, and Otan party members 
Dariya Klebanova and Amanageldy Taspikhov insisted on 
 
ALMATY 00002074  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
sending the amendments back to the government for 
revisions. Addressing the parliament June 7, Nazarbayeva 
said accepting the draft law for consideration would sign 
"a death warrant for freedom of speech" in Kazakhstan. The 
official news agency Kazakhstan Today reported that a 
working group headed by Otan party member Gadilbek 
Shalakhmetov would prepare comments on the draft amendments 
by October 20 this year. 
 
The Long and Winding Road to a Revised Media Law 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶6. (U) The Congress of Journalists, the Information 
Ministry, and the media defense group Adil Syoz have spent 
several years trying to reach a consensus on a revised 
media law. In April 2004, a draft was so widely criticized 
that President Nazarbayev vetoed it, after the 
Constitutional Council declared it unconstitutional. 
Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, the Information Minister at the 
time, then prepared a draft that set limits on libel 
claims, abolished criminal libel prosecutions of 
journalists, and included significant anti-monopoly 
provisions. Dariga Nazarbayeva's Congress of Journalists 
submitted a version to the Information Ministry for review 
in October 2005. Their draft proposed a one-year statute of 
limitations for libel suits and a 5% cap on damage claims, 
but lacked anti-monopoly clauses. (Note:  Media report that 
Nazarbayeva will submit a draft law to parliament on June 
14, but it is unclear whether the draft has been changed 
since October of last year.) 
 
¶7. (SBU) Adil Syoz protested publicly in November 2005 that 
their suggested additions to the Congress of Journalists' 
draft law were ignored, including a ban on media 
monopolies. Adil Syoz had also proposed that media should 
only have to inform the information ministry to become 
registered, and if confirmation were not received with 30 
days, they should be able to begin publishing. The ministry 
would thus have to respond promptly to new registration 
requests and would be unable to ignore - or prevent - the 
establishment of new outlets. Another omission concerned 
the requirement for immobile, proprietary TV and radio 
broadcast towers that can only be installed by the state 
Kazteleradio corporation. Adil Syoz had asked that simpler 
modular towers be allowed, to avoid mandatory installation 
by Kazteleradio. In his conversation with Taft, Yertysbayev 
said both the Adil Syoz and Congress of Journalist draft 
media laws were good, but he said he was a pragmatist and a 
realist and knew which one parliament would ultimately 
approve. 
 
Yertysbayev Sets the Free Speech Bar a Little Bit Higher 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: Yertysbayev insists that he wants to 
defend freedom of speech and the rights of journalists to 
publish. It is, however, his own definition of "journalism" 
that he is defending when he draws a distinction between 
"truthful and objective information" and "slandering the 
head of state" (Ref A). Some of the amendments, if passed, 
would be used to silence media that dared to criticize 
those in power. Requiring newspapers to publish every three 
months rather than every six will have no appreciable 
affect. Newspapers like Respublika (aka Assandi Times) and 
Zhuma Times (aka DATa Nedeli, SolDAT, etc.) have managed to 
keep publishing by registering names of future newspapers 
to replace those that were shut down in libel suits. 
However, the $39,000 deposit against potential libel 
judgments is a very serious hurdle that lower budget 
opposition newspapers would not be able to clear. Such 
smaller, independent newspapers would be the most likely to 
be found guilty of "insulting the dignity and honor of the 
president" and would lose their deposit. Another amendment 
would prohibit their editors from publishing again. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment, continued: Nazarbayeva has fueled the 
firestorm over the proposed amendments, most likely to 
generate public sympathy for the battle ahead when 
Yertysbayev tries to turn official Khabar TV, in which 
supposedly she has a large investment, into Kazakhstan's 
 
ALMATY 00002074  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
first public television station (Ref B). Her outrage over 
Yertysbayev's amendments obscures the fact that the 
Congress of Journalists' draft law also leaves out key 
provisions on simplified registration and anti-monopoly 
clauses that media rights groups insist upon. Yertysbayev 
told Taft that Kazakhstan's media have improved greatly 
compared to Uzbekistan or those from Kazakhstan's days as a 
Soviet republic. With such a low standard of comparison, 
Kazakhstan is likely to progress slowly toward a more 
democratic ideal of media independence. 
 
Asquino