RFE/RL's KAZAKH SERVICE

In Brief

• Language: Kazakh
• Coverage: Eight hours a day, including news, talk shows, roundtables, and analytical programming
• Frequency: FM, MW, UKV, SW, and Satellite
• Internet: www.azattyq.org

History

• RFE/RL's Kazakh Service was established in 1953 as part of the Radio Liberty family, and Radio Azattyq has redoubled those efforts since independence to provide dependable information through intensive on-the-ground reporting and unique perspective.
• Restrictions on the Kazakh media market and limited airtime have imposed a heavy burden that Radio Azattyq has sought to counter with dynamic programming and stepped-up cooperation with local and regional media.
• Radio Azattyq has battled effectively to maintain ties to Kazakh media, with joint television and content-sharing projects to deliver RFE/RL's informed and balanced coverage despite politically rooted obstacles and resource challenges.
• In mid-2008, Radio Azattyq's local website was inexplicably blocked for seven weeks until access was restored following public appeals to the Kazakh government by RFE/RL, U.S. officials, numerous NGOs, and the OSCE's envoy on media freedom.

Highlights

• Radio Azattyq correspondents have won numerous awards for their trenchant coverage of civil society, extremism, the energy sector, and other areas.
• Radio Azattyq was the sole source of information when Human Rights Watch issued a statement of concern regarding jailed opposition figure Ghalymzhan Zhaqiyanov in 2005.
• Kazakhstan's National Security Committee concluded in 2004 that Radio Azattyq's weekly "Law and Society" program provided some of the country's best coverage in the areas terrorism and extremism.
• Radio Azattyq was the first and only source of coverage on public clashes with police as authorities demolished "illegally constructed" homes on the outskirts of the capital, including photos from the scene that were the only images to reach the populace.
• Radio Azattyq broke the news to Kazakhs in February 2006 of the murder of leading opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbaev and two aides, providing unique perspective on the politically charged investigation and trial through interviews with Kazakh authorities as well as the victims' family, legal experts, and independent observers.
• Faced with official hurdles to many forms of formal cooperation, Radio Azattyq provides headline news to local television audiences in Kazakhstan's two largest cities.
• In 2004, the Almaty police department recognized a Radio Azattyq correspondent as providing the best coverage of city police operations and crime. 
• Radio Azattyq has received a boost with the advent of "citizen journalism" as such informal channels in cyberspace help to spread word of Radio Azattyq's coverage and accomplishments.