Financial Times Quotes Director of RFE/RL's Kazakhstan Service
May 19, 2009
A new and controversial book has been published about Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his dealings with foreign investors and governments, as well as details about his personal life. The Kazakh authorities have threatened arrest and prosecution of anyone caught promoting the book or publishing excerpts from it. Isabel Gorst of the Financial Times writes about the impact of the book and the the strict laws governing the press in Kazakhstan.
A portion of the article is reprinted below. The entire article is available
here.
"Kazakhstan Warns Media Over President" Isabel Gorst | Financial Times
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Kazakhstan warned on Wednesday it would prosecute local media found advertising a new publication that paints Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of the oil-rich central Asian country, in an unflattering light. Yedige Maguin, the editor of azattyk.org, Radio Free Europe’s Kazakh website, said Kazakh opposition websites had faced a series of attacks since “The Godfather-in-Law” was published last week.
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