Tag Archives: media

Kazakh-Russian aviation row derails Top Gear

MARCH 30 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Top Gear, the BBC’s high- profile motoring programme, cancelled filming in Kazakhstan after a row between Russian and Kazakh aviation authorities briefly closed the air route between the two countries.

Presenters Rory Reid, Eddie Jordan and Sabine Schmitz, but not Chris Evans or Matt LeBlanc, and 40 crew had reportedly been in Russia filming. They had planned to fly to Kazakhstan from Moscow but instead they returned to London after their flight was cancelled at the last minute.

News reports said the row focused on a new route by Air Astana to Mongolia that crossed into Russian airspace.

The row has now been resolved.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

No free speech in Tajikistan – says UN Rapporteur

MARCH 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – After completing a mission to Tajikistan, David Kaye, a UN Special Rapporteur, said that freedom of expression in the country was dire. Mr Kaye said that the authorities were using concerns over security as an excuse to crackdown on the media and political parties they didn’t like. “The security situation has been used as a pretext, as an excuse, to crack down on freedom of expression,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

EU criticises Kazakhstan

MARCH 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Parliament issued a rare strongly worded statement criticising a recent crackdown on media in Kazakhstan. “MEPs are deeply concerned about the climate for the media and free speech in Kazakhstan, where strong pressure on independent media outlets includes some being closed down, and news agency directors and journalists being detained, placed under criminal investigation and sentenced to prison,” it said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Kazakhstan acquits reporter’s charges

FEB. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty acquitted Yulia Kozlova, a journalist for nakanune.kz which is often critical of the authorities, of drug related charges. Ms Kozlova has said that the charges were politically motivated. Acquittals in Kazakhstan are extremely rare. It may be that the authorities are trying to deflect a barrage of negative criticism accusing them of cracking down on independent media.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)

Kazakh police arrest leading journalist

FEB. 22 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Police arrested Seitkazy Matayev, one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent journalists and a former press secretary of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well as his son Aset for stealing government money and for tax evasion.

The arrests are a an escalation of the pressure that journalists are under in Kazakhstan. They appeared to show that no journalist, whatever their reputation and links, is beyond the reach of the authorities during a crackdown which analysts have linked to a sharp downturn in the economy and a parliamentary election next month.

Mr Matayev served as a spokesman for Nazarbayev in 1991-3, is head of the journalists’ union and runs the National Press Club in Almaty, used as a discussion platform for opposition, journalists, activists, politicians and businessmen.

He was also the founder and owner of the KazTAG news agency of which his son was CEO. The authorities said that they had stolen a combined 300m tenge ($861,000), from state organisations.

Journalists told The Conway Bulletin’s Almaty correspondent that Mr Matayev’s arrest signalled that the authorities wanted to increase the pressure on journalists further.

Zhanna Baitelova, a freelance journalist, said it was no surprise that the authorities were pressuring Kazakhstan’s opposition media.

“But when they detain the head of Journalists’ Union of Kazakhstan, an organisation that is per se neutral, it is shocking,” she said. “The situation with press freedom in Kazakhstan is critical, especially in the light of recent events.”

Police later released Asset Matayev. Seitkazy Matayev was placed under house arrest.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Group attacks editor in Kyrgyzstan

FEB. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of men armed with metal bars beat up the editor of the Money and Power weekly business newspaper, Turat Akimov, an attack that has worried other journalists and political analysts. Media observers have been warning for the past year that Kyrgyzstan’s media scene was getting more and more pressured.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)

Uzbek capital installs bus wifi

FEB. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tashkent’s state-owned bus company Toshshahartranshizmat has started to trial free wifi on its buses around the Uzbek capital, media reported, a signal of just how ubiquitous wifi has become in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan’s security forces closely monitor internet use. Uzbekistan is considered one of the most repressive countries in the world.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Rights groups criticise Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan

JAN. 27 2016, ALMATY/Kazakhstan (The Conway Bulletin) — Human rights abuses, crackdowns on freedom of speech and endemic corruption still blight Central Asia and the South Caucasus, western watchdogs said in a series of annual reports.

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) civil liberties worsened in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan last year as an economic crisis battered the region.

“Central Asian governments are becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent, criticism, and human rights scrutiny – an alarming trend,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.

Specifically, Mr Williamson said that Kazakhstan had used courts to silence opposition figures and that Azerbaijan’s crackdown on journalists and rights advocates was “unprecedented.”

Freedom House, another US- based civil rights lobby group, also criticised governments in Central

Asia and the South Caucasus for their record on freedom of speech.

“The [November parliamentary in Azerbaijan] elections followed another year of intense suppression of civil society and independent media,” Robert Ruby, Freedom House’s director of communication, said.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International projected a slightly more positive outlook for the region but, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan all improved their rankings in its global index, absolute scores in the region were mostly unchanged or down from 2014.

Transparency International’s director for Europe and Central Asia, Anne Koch said little had improved.

“While a handful of countries in Europe and Central Asia have improved, the general picture across this vast region is one of stagnation,” she said in the report.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Uzbek authorities urge anti-IS propaganda

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan are forcing parents of men and women who have fled Uzbekistan to join the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq apologise for their sons and daughters on state television, the eurasianet.org website reported. The footage of sobbing, elderly parents is supposed to encourage others to monitor their children more closely. Central Asian governments are increasingly worried about IS recruitment from the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Ketchum enters Azerbaijan

JAN. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — US PR firm Ketchum signed a so- called exclusive affiliation deal with Azerbaijan-based Red Communications, which will expand the company’s operations into its 17th country. Red Communications was previously affiliated with Ketchum’s Moscow office. Ketchum said it will work with Red Communications on international PR campaigns.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)