Kazakhstan: Press freedom under threat in run-up to presidential elections
Via Reporters sans Frontières.
In the space of one week, in Kazakhstan, an opposition Internet site has been banned, five journalists have been arrested and released and two editions of independent newspapers have been seized.
"There have been too many violations of press freedom in the country in the past few days, as the government attempts to gag all those who could embarrass it ahead of the 4 December presidential poll," said Reporters Without Borders.
“Steps must be taken to allow the opposition to have its say during this pre-election period”, the worldwide press freedom organisation added.
Opposition website Navi.kz, formerly Navigator.kz has come in for escalating harassment. On 13 October, the Kazakh network information centre (KazNIC), that runs .kz (the equivalent of .fr), cancelled the domain name Navi.kz, forcing the site to change its address to navikz.net. On 14 October a court in Almaty banned the domain names "Navigator" and "Navi" in both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets. The editorial board again changed the name, to Mizinov.net.
posted by Fergie @ 10/24/2005 06:10:00 PM
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