A U.S. official has called on Kazakhstan to fulfill its obligations before it assumes the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
George Krol, the deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told journalists in Astana on October 30 that Kazakhstan
should carry out reforms it agreed to in Madrid last December.
At that time, then-Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin told the other OSCE member states' foreign ministers that Astana would make progress on OSCE recommendations to change its laws on the media, namely the mitigation of responsibility for defamation and the liberalization of the registration for media outlets.
Tazhin also said then that Kazkahstan intended to liberalize laws on elections and political parties.
Kazakhstan is due to take over the chair of the OSCE on January 1.