[iwar] [fc:Kazakstan:.New.Threat.to.Internet]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-07 06:28:21

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 06:28:21 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Kazakstan:.New.Threat.to.Internet]
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Kazakstan: New Threat to Internet 

Authorities take opposition journalist to court over online criticism.

By Leila Makhmudova in Almaty (RCA No. 135, 6-Aug-02) 

There are fresh fears for the future of unrestricted internet access in Kazakstan 
after an online article by Sergei Duvanov led to the journalist being charged with 
"insulting the dignity and honour of the president".

This is the second case where the authors of Internet articles criticising President 
Nursultan Nazarbaev's regime have been brought to trial. The leader's son-in-law 
Rakhat Aliev recently sued the local office of the media development organisation 
Internews, also claiming that he been impugned by online allegations that he controls 
a significant proportion of the country's media.

Duvanov - who was arrested and charged on July 10 - is the editor of the Kazakstan 
Internal Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law Bulletin. He is also an active member 
of the Republican People's Party of Kazakstan, the opposition force led by political 
exile Akezhan Kazhegeldin. 

The charge concerns Duvanov's article headlined, "The Silence of the Lambs" that 
appeared on the website www.kub.kz - which features articles critical of the authorities 
- on May 6, 2002.

The report discusses alleged foreign bank accounts linked to Nazarbaev, and asks 
why law-enforcement agencies ignore their existence. "It seems I will have to prove 
the existence of these accounts at the trial, which is not that difficult, because 
documents exist and we have copies of them in French," Duvanov told IWPR.

Duvanov believes the president took offence at a section of the article which dealt 
with claims made two years ago that several million dollars of oil revenue were placed 
in foreign accounts bearing the names of high-ranking officials, including the president.

When questioned in parliament over the revelations in May, Prime Minister Imangali 
Tasmagambetov refused to answer them directly, saying only that a foreign account 
had been set up as a fund, which could be used by the government to help the population 
in times of hardship. Some Kazak observers have pointed out that Duvanov has written 
far more critical and aggressive pieces than this, and are surprised that the government 
has taken offence when similar reports have been widely published.

Vladimir Kozlov, press secretary for the Democratic Choice of Kazakstan party, said 
it is "going after journalists with the aim of stopping the flow of information which 
criticises the president".

National Press Club vice president Maxim Kimasov believes the authorities are using 
Duvanov as an excuse to continue its crack down on the Web-based publications, which 
fall under the same restrictions as increasingly muzzled newspapers and broadcasters.

Two years ago, www.eurasia.org.ru was blocked and a fake site was created at the 
same address. And, several months ago, access to www.kub.kz was temporarily suspended. 

The authorities are able to exert control of such sites by ordering Kazaktelekom 
and NURSAT, the area's major Internet service providers, ISPs, to prevent Kazak users 
accessing them.

The authorities claim that they are merely trying to regulate the Web. This is rejected 
by the opposition, which believes the government is likely to intimidate journalists 
publishing critical articles online in attempt to censor the Internet. But Kazak 
political scientist Berik Barlybaev says the policy won't work as, given the nature 
of the medium, they will never be able to control it. 

Leila Makhmudova is the pseudonym for a journalist in Kazakstan

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