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Petro-Authoritarianism and Kazakhstan's Media Landscape
8 September 2008
Social and political criticism is getting shorter shrift in Kazakhstan's mass media as the level of government control increases. Journalistic barbs aimed at the president, members of his family or any senior public official have become punishable by law. This is mainly applied to print and broadcast outlets so far, but the public authorities are also trying to tighten their control over the internet. Last spring, for example, the government reportedly blocked the Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty website for six weeks after it posted an interview with Rakhat Aliev, the estranged ex-son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbaev and a harsh critic of the current Kazakhstani regime.
Freedom House's annual Freedom of the Press survey has rated Kazakhstan's media "not free" since the early 1990s and in fact has documented a decline in media liberties over that period. The latest report highlights that Kazakhstan's mostly privately owned media channels and newspapers have ties to companies that are either owned by or closely linked to government leaders or the business interests of the regime. In fact, a new Kazakh media holding company, recently formed as an umbrella organization for media that support the government, is a further move toward consolidating control.
Still, relatively speaking, the Kazakh media environment remains the most liberal in Central Asia. Recent moves to make the country's Law on Mass Media more restrictive have sparked domestic debate. Some voices are calling for more media independence, development of a professional class of journalists and efforts to limit governmental control.
Public is in favor of more-open media
InterMedia surveys suggest that a strong base of public support exists for a more-open information sector. When asked whether government should control the media, Kazakhs were much more likely than their Central Asian neighbors to disagree.
Do you agree that government should control the activities of the press?
Source: InterMedia surveys in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in 2007
Base: 2,000 for each Central Asian survey
That said, a significant majority of Kazakhstanis (64 percent) also feel they currently get enough information about local and national news and current events. While government propaganda may have persuaded Kazakhstanis that they don't lack for news, another possibility is that people are tapping alternative information sources to get a wider range of opinions and views (for example, international broadcasters, friends and family or the internet). This issue will get more attention in future InterMedia surveys.
A related question is whether Kazakhs are simply complacent as a result of the long-running stability of the presidential regime--and perhaps also because of the country's abundant oil wealth.. InterMedia's research shows fluctuation, albeit at fairly high levels, in the level of interest in politics, with the percentage of those saying they are interested reaching 68 percent in 2004 (prior to national elections), declining to 56 percent in 2006 and rebounding to 64 percent last year. Kazakh interest is higher than in Russia, but lower than in some other Central Asian countries.
| How Interested Would You Say You Are in Politics? |
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| Sources: InterMedia 2007 surveys in Kyrgyzstan (n=2000), Kazakhstan (n=2000) and Russia (n=4,625). |