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Against journalists, violence without borders in Kazakhstan [1]

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Date: 2023-03-09

In 2023, attacks and threats against journalists have reached a new level. “Just in the first month, we recorded at least seven incidents. These journalists were targeted for their professional activity,” Karlygash Jamankulova, head of Adil Soz, told Vlast.

In mid-January, unidentified individuals set fire to Dinara Yegeubayeva’s car. Yegeubayeva regularly criticized the government’s decisions, and has applied to run for a seat in parliament with the civic coalition Altynshy Qantar (Kazakh for “January 6”). A few days later, journalist Vadim Boreiko, host of the Giperborei YouTube channel, reported that three young men tried to block the door to his apartment in Almaty.

Boreiko said he already received threats in September, ahead of the announcement of early presidential elections. At the time, an acquaintance called Boreiko to relay the words of an unnamed “silovik” (a person in or close to law enforcement structures): If the journalist avoided mentioning President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the next two months, he would receive monetary compensation.

“This was definitely a way to see if I would fall for a bribe. This is how they generally deal with independent journalists. First they negotiate ‘in a nice way,’ then they try with a bribe, then they try to discredit you, and then they move onto intimidating you,” Boreiko told Vlast in an interview.

Boreiko could not say who plotted the latest attack, although he said that so many incidents in such a short period could indicate coordination.

Political analyst Dosym Satpayev fielded three possible hypotheses to explain the current situation. First, the attacks could be organized by people close to Nazarbayev to discredit Tokayev’s image. Second, the pressure on journalists could be beneficial for Tokayev to keep them in check and at the same time purportedly act as a guarantor of their security. The third hypothesis is based on the suspicion that the Russian government could be coordinating attacks on Kazakhstani media and journalists who have supported Ukraine’s position in the war.

International lobby groups for media freedom are calling the government to investigate the incidents and ensure a punishment for the perpetrators and those behind them.

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[1] Url: https://advox.globalvoices.org/2023/03/09/against-journalists-violence-without-borders-in-kazakhstan/

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