ALMATY, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Astana arrested prominent Kazakh journalist Bigeldy Gabdullin for extortion, a charge that his supporters say is fabricated.

Mr Gabdullin is one of Kazakhstan’s most high-profile and influential journalists. He is executive director of the internet-based media company radiotochka.kz and the editor-in-chief of Central Asia Monitor. Both are renowned for being critical of the government and it policies.

The Pen Club, a London-based organisation that promotes writers’ rights, had previously appointed Mr Gabdullin as its representative in Kazakhstan.

“The organization fears he may have been targeted for his reporting critical of government officials,” it wrote in a press statement. “It is calling for him to be released unless clear evidence of a criminal offence is made available and he is charged and tried promptly and fairly in accordance with international fair trial standards.”

Earlier this year, a court in Astana also sentenced Seitkazy Matayev, a former press secretary to Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and head of the National Union of Journalists in Kazakhstan, to six years in prison for financial crimes.

Journalists in Kazakhstan said that conditions to operate freely have rarely been as bad. Earlier this year, the government created a new information ministry. One of its first acts was to introduce rules for the media which journalists said are designed to stifle free speech.

At a meeting set up to reassure journalists, Dauren Abayev, the minister for information and communication, said the rules were not designed to crush free speech but instead to improve quality.

“The whole system will be improved. There was done a lot of work before we brought up this bill for discussion,” he was quoted as saying by media.

“It is not a crackdown but instead has been done for the end-user, for the citizens of the country.”

Journalists were less impressed.

A journalist from the vlast.kz website said: “The adoption of new amendments might significantly complicate the work of journalists, and with the recent arrests and verdicts it is hard to imagine how this can end well for journalism in Kazakhstan.”

Another anonymous journalist said that the rules and requirements had gotten so complicated that it was difficult to decipher how to avoid being sanctioned and that the new requirements had undermined independent journalism in Kazakhstan.

“There is almost no independent media left. And indifference of the majority of journalists to this legislation is very demonstrative,” she said.

“They know that nothing depends on them. If they open their mouths, they will be fired. Only those who still write or try to write freely are resisting it.”

ENDS