Kazak Campaigners Battle Internet Curbs

Screens go blank in protest against a bill that some fear will create internet censorship.

By Aygerim Beysenbaeva in Almaty (RCA No. 578, 28-May-09)

As a controversial internet bill nears the end of its progress through Kazakstan’s parliament, media rights activists have been putting up a last-ditch defence.

The campaign to persuade lawmakers that the proposed changes to current legislation are a bad idea was stepped up with a symbolic hour’s blackout protest by websites on May 13, the day the bill was passed by the lower house of parliament, the Majilis.

Around a thousand Kazakstan-based websites blanked out their screens in an “Hour of Silence”, organised by the Free Internet campaign group and backed by a number of media NGOs like the Union of Journalists, MediaNet and Adil Soz, and leading websites. As part of the action, users were asked to stop accessing the internet for the hour.

The idea was to give an idea of the kind of information vacuum that campaigners believe would be created if the legislation took effect.

The bill now goes to the upper house or Senate for approval. Once the Senate gives its assent, the law will go to President Nursultan Nazarbaev for final sign-off.

On May 19, the Union of Journalists, Adil Soz and the National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters wrote to Senate members urging them to send the bill back to the government for “substantial improvement so as to bring it into line with international principles of freedom of expression”.

The proposed amendments, which apply to current laws on media, national security, and communications, would subject internet content to the same controls that now apply to conventional print and broadcast media. Controls on media mean the internet is seen as the last place where people can access alternative sources of information.

As well as a ban on publishing classified information, terrorist or extremist propaganda, pornography and calls for the overthrow of the government, the bill would also prohibit foreign nationals from using web-based media for electioneering or calling on workers to strike.

The bill would allow the authorities to block foreign-based websites if their content was deemed to contravene Kazakstan law. Finally, internet service providers would be obliged to gather personal data on their customers. (See Kazak Rights Groups Denounce “Internet Censorship” Bill, RCA No. 569, 12-Mar-09.)

In their letter, the media rights groups said the Majilis had ignored recommendations made by the OSCE as well domestic organisations to make the law less draconian. The only change made to the “reactionary innovations”, they said, was dropping a proposal to allow the Kazak prosecution service to close down a media outlet without obtaining a court injunction.

According to Adil Jalilov, the head of the MediaNet group, the bill will make it easy for the authorities to find fault with websites and close them down.

“It’s obvious that website administrators won’t be able to keep track of the tens of thousands messages coming in every day,” he said. “It is going to be much easier to shut down an unfavourable website or [silence] an opponent – all it will take is to post a comment containing something illegal.”

Concerns about the future of internet freedom are not confined to media rights groups, judging from interviews conducted by IWPR.

A 27-year old Almaty resident who gave his name as Asyl, for example, said, “Here in Kazakstan, the internet has long been the only source of true and objective information about what’s happening in the country and in the world.”

Alexander, 44, who works in the private sector, believes the legislation mimics the worst aspects of the Soviet system.

“The authorities here stubbornly refuse to hear the truth about themselves or about developments in the country,” he said. “It is stupid to think that closing newspapers and internet sites is going to improve our image or prevent accurate information from reaching people. Similar things happened in the Soviet Union, and we all know how that ended.”

The new legislation has its supporters as well as detractors. Mikhail Tyunin, a lawyer in Almaty, says the internet cannot be completely lawless.

The state needs to have the means to curb sites that show violence and pornography, and which support terrorism, he says.

“The existence of pro-terrorism websites, and others advocating violence and child pornography negates the positive aspects of the internet,” Tyunin told IWPR. “I remain a strong supporter of regulating the internet, if only because a significant proportion of users are young people – schoolchildren and adolescents. “Who is going to keep an eye on the internet sites our children are visiting? I have a growing son and it’s a good thing I can block certain sites at home, but he is going to [come across them] at school or internet cafes.”

As the Senate starts discussing the internet bill, the Free Internet campaigners are determined to continue, with plans to urge international organisations to press for change.

The Free Internet campaign has seen the emergence of innovative forms of protest, led by a youth group called Janasu. Since parliament started debating the bill two months ago, they have sent the speaker a computer keyboard bound by chains and held a mock funeral outside a telecoms provider in Almaty.

Plans to stage a flash mob in Almaty and release balloons with computer mouses attached failed on May 16 when prosecutors warned that the action was technically a demonstration and therefore required advance permission.

Aygerim Beysenbaeva is an IWPR-trained journalist in Almaty.