14 June 2002
CHIEF EDITOR OF "USH ANYQ" NEWSPAPER COMPLAINS
Maghripa Tleubekova, who is Editor-in-Chief of the Semey (Semipalatinsk) newspaper "Ush Anyq," told RFE/RL on 14 June that her paper has been facing problems in the last couple of months. She said local authorities confiscated materials of the newspaper when it was ready for printing last month. On May 23, the local court decided to suspend the newspaper's operations for six weeks. Tleubekova says that decision was politically motivated, adding that she and her colleagues started facing problems after printing materials on the freezing of Swiss bank accounts in connection with the investigation of allegations that Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his associates accepted huge bribes from oil companies.
CONFERENCE ON KAZAKH MEDIA CONTINUES
An international conference on the Kazakh media organized by International Adil Soz organization and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation continued in Almaty on14 June, focussing on the need to adopt a new law on the mass media. Kazakhstan's Union of Journalists chairman Seiytqazy Matayev told RFE/RL that he is very sceptical about the possible laws on the media. He said any law is worthless if it is ignored and not implemented.
KAZAKH JOURNALISTS BURIED
Two journalists killed in a traffic accident on 10 June in Eastern Kazakhstan Oblast while en route to cover an international conference on nuclear arms (see "RFE/RL Kazakh Report," 12 June) were buried in Almaty on 14 June.