Report: Officials harass Kazakh paper

Report: Officials harass Kazakh paper

	Published : Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:31 By : Agencies Print this Story

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AFX) - A media watchdog accused local officials in western Kazakhstan on Tuesday of harassing a popular independent newspaper and pressuring publishing companies not to print it.

Government officials have harassed the biweekly Uralskaya Nedelya, based in the city of Uralsk, since the paper began a series on corruption last July, and three printing companies refused to print the paper under official pressure, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

'Intimidating printing houses has become a favorite tool for silencing critical newspapers in Kazakhstan,' the New York-based group said in a statement. 'We call on authorities to stop harassing Uralskaya Nedelya and its printers immediately.'

Tamara Yeslyamova, the newspaper's editor, told CPJ that the Poligrafservis printing company informed her in December that local officials had threatened to close it down if it produced the paper. After another printing company refused to work with it, the paper was forced to print outside the region, but that printer then broke its contract after one issue, citing 'unforeseen circumstances.'

The newspaper is now being printed in another region, but according to CPJ, that company's management has been warned to halt publication.

Earlier this month, a court found the paper guilty of slander and ordered it to pay a local metal company about $2,300 in damages seized from the paper before it could appeal, CPJ said.

In its corruption series, Uralskaya Nedelya reported that the regional governor had distributed state housing intended for low-income families to government officials, according to the Kazakh media group Adil Soz.

The paper also wrote about public parks being illegally handed over to private construction companies.

Five opposition newspapers in the Central Asian nation were forced out of print before the December 2005 presidential elections after printers refused to publish them. In January 2006, the country's biggest printing house, Daur refused to print seven opposition weeklies, citing an equipment change. Editors said it was government retaliation for critical coverage.

The oil rich, ex-Soviet republic has been ruled for the past 17 years by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been criticized for holding up democratic reforms and pressuring independent media.