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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Kazakstan
Index
Kazakstan has enjoyed the same flourishing of media as have most of the
other former Soviet republics. To some extent, the republic also continues
to be influenced by the Moscow media, although changes in currency and the
simple passage of time are steadily reducing that influence. Also similar
to the processes in other republics is a certain erosion of the freedom
that the media enjoyed in the earlier days of independence. Although the
government always has retained some control, there was a certain tendency
to view the proper relationship between the media and government as
adversarial. However, Nazarbayev steadily chipped away at Kazakstan's
central press, which as a result became more noticeably pro-government in
1994 and 1995. The 1995 constitution guarantees freedom of ideas and
expression and explicitly bans censorship. In practice, however, the
government influences the press in several ways. Government presses (the
only ones available) have refused to publish private newspapers for
various "technical" reasons; financial pressure has been brought
through court cases or investigations of a given newspaper's sponsors;
and, in some cases, outright censorship has been exercised for "security
reasons." Strictly enforced laws forbid personal criticism of the
president or members of the president's family.
The major official newspapers are the Russian-language Kazakstanskaya
pravda and Sovety Kazakstana , which are supported by the
government. Nominally, the former is the organ of the Council of Ministers
and the latter that of the parliament. The newspaper Ekspress K
has taken some independent positions, although in the mid-1990s the editor
in chief was a senior official in SNEK, the presidential political party.
The small-edition papers Respublika and NKK are
somewhat more oppositional. The first was the organ of the Socialist Party
until it was sold to commercial interests, and the second is the organ of
the People's Congress Party. Respublika is said to be
underfinanced, but NKK enjoys the resources of Olzhas
Suleymenov's large Nevada-Semipalatinsk commercial organization. Panorama
, perhaps the largest independent newspaper in the republic, is owned by
some of the largest business interests in the republic and is oriented
toward political and economic issues (on which it generally takes an
objective view). The Karavan commercial organization publishes two
newspapers, Karavan and ABV (short for Almaty Business
News). The former inclines toward tabloid-style muckraking, while the
latter is entirely commercial in character.
The electronic media remain under state control. Many private
production companies exist, but access to television and radio is still
controlled by the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation (see
Transportation and Telecommunications, this ch.).
As it does most activities, ethnicity complicates media operations.
Inevitably the nationality of the owners of a newspaper or television
production company affects how its product is received. The most obvious
example is that of the newspaper Karavan . Although its
muckraking approach is similar to that taken by newspapers in Moscow and
Bishkek, the fact that the paper is Russian-owned makes it seem, in the
context of Kazakstan, to be more vividly partisan. In early 1995, a fire
in the Karavan warehouse prompted rumors of sabotage, which
never were substantiated.
Data as of March 1996
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