The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Kazakh authorities to "thoroughly investigate" a wave of attacks on independent journalists in the Central Asian nation and ensure that all involved "are held to account."
The watchdog said in a February 23 statement that at least four attacks on journalists or members of their families have been registered across Kazakhstan since early February "in a continued pattern of incidents targeting independent and critical journalists since the fall of 2022."
On February 21, Kazakh police said they had detained 18 suspects accused of attacking six journalists and bloggers, as well as one associated individual, in a spate of incidents since September. However, it still remains unclear who ordered the attacks.
"Although the arrest of 18 suspects accused of perpetrating attacks on the press in Kazakhstan is encouraging, the very fact that these attacks are continuing underscores the urgent need to apprehend -- and prosecute-- those who are organizing and ordering them," said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, the CPJ’s program director.
"Kazakh authorities should know that their reputation is on the line should they fail to conduct a full and convincing investigation into all recent crimes against journalists," he added
The CPJ statement came one day after a masked man physically assaulted investigative journalist Daniyar Moldabekov while shouting, "Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong!"
On February 20, another Almaty-based journalist and vlogger, Vadim Boreiko, said his cameraman Roman Yegorov's two cars were burned in an arson attack.
Also in February, the chief editor of the Ulysmedia.kz news website in Almaty, Samal Ibraeva, received a box from unknown people that contained a hunk of meat and pictures of her children, a parcel she called a fresh attempt "to intimidate" her and her staff.
International human rights watchdogs and the embassies of several Western nations also have urged Kazakh authorities to investigate the attacks.
