Watchdog

Kazakh journalists are urging authorities to explain their criteria for defining "destructive" websites, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Tamara Kaleeva, chairwoman of the Almaty-based media monitoring organization Adil Soz (Just Word), said at a press conference today that several organizations uniting Kazakh journalists -- including the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan -- made the call in an open letter to the government.

In August, the Kazakh government approved a controversial law that recognizes all websites as media outlets.

In conjunction with the law, a recently established government office announced that it had begun to identify websites in the country that are deemed to contain "destructive" material.

Kaleeva said the owners, moderators, and editors of online news portals in the country have no idea what criteria the new office will use to identify such content.

She said that lack of clarity poses a threat to freedom of speech as "the lack of free dialogue and transparency could lead to lawless actions by state organs."

ALMATY -- Leaders of Kazakhstan's Communist Party and the United Social Democratic Azat (Free) Party have issued a joint statement demanding the release of a jailed activist, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Vladimir Kozlov, the leader of the nonregistered Algha (Forward) party, was arrested and sentenced to 10 days in jail for holding an unsanctioned public gathering on March 26. He and other party activists held a rally in Almaty demanding the release from prison of former Kazakh uranium-company head Mukhtar Dzhakishev.

Dzhakishev, the former director of the state company KazAtomProm, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in jail on March 12.

Algha party activists say Kozlov's arrest and sentencing are politically motivated. Opposition party leaders say Kozlov's arrest is further evidence of increasing pressure on dissent in Kazakhstan.