‘Not just for your information’ – this is the principle of work of new media in Kazakhstan. They try to establish communication between the society and authority, to make officials revise their attitudes to their duties. And they have succeeded in it.
Changing officials
Social media and messengers have become an environment favourable to small media. They are small in terms of a size of content-making teams. However, they outstrip so-called traditional media that are either funded by public money or influenced by ideology of state-controlled media in terms of quality of influence on social environment.
For example, ProTenge, public account on budgetary expenses, managed to make the government change the unfair rule that allowed state bodies to get seized luxury property for free. Now luxury cars, watches, bags and other expensive things are sold at auctions, while all proceeds go to the state treasury.
“With support of our readers and in communication with the ministry of finance, we have managed to close a legal gap, which would curb the love of prosecutors and judges for free Lexus cars and would replenish the national budget,” Dzhamilia Maricheva, founder of ProTenge, wrote about the change.
Thanks to posts on Facebook, Vadim Boreiko, journalist, creator of YouTube channel ‘Giperborei’, has managed to translate the discussion of eco-activists opposing the construction of a ski resort at Kokzhailau with authorities into the language of facts, not emotions. As a result, the construction was stopped.
Askhat Niyazov, author of YouTube channel ‘Obozhayu!’, is known for persistently asking questions, which ordinary people are afraid to ask, to akims (mayors). Thus, the journalist wanted to hold the interview with Danial Akhmetov, who was the unchanging head of East Kazakhstan region for nine years, for over a year. The interview was held after all, and the official appeared in bad light in it. The video has gathered over a million views and Akhmetov was soon dismissed from office by the president.
‘After’ is not equal to ‘because of’
While a cause-effect relationship between the work of journalists and ongoing socio-political events seems obvious, journalists assess their influence with caution.
Askhat Niyazov noted that dismissal of Danial Akhmetov was the result of several factors. Among them is the fire that occurred in summer 2023. Nearly 70 thousand hectares of forest burned down, leaving 14 dead. Danial Akhmetov was the akim before the region was divided into East Kazakhstan region and Abai region in 2022.
“All that happened for eight years over there was his responsibility,” said Niyazov. “Then followed my interview, which got great public response. Moreover, the term of his office [of akim] was to expire soon. I was said that he agreed to have the interview only because his term of office was to be prolonged for one more year. I wonder how it was in reality.”
“I have no intention to overemphasise my role in history, I have never been eager to shout out, ‘Here I am, that’s my topic!’, said Vadim Boreiko. I call chronological coincidences the moments when I raise an issue on my channel, and when the issue receives a feedback at the top. I did not want to believe for a long time that my channel was watched by the Akorda (the residence of the President of Kazakhstan – Editor’s note). But everyone assured me of that. And eventually people who worked there confirmed it to me.”
Taking the media into account
Media critic Sergei Kim also said that the government read new media. He cited high-profile criminal cases initiated due to Kozachkov Offside channel, run by journalist Mikhail Kozachkov, and the new channel ‘Obozhayu!’ posting interviews with ministers.
“The fact that ministers are eager to keep in contact shows the influence,” Sergei Kim said. “Maybe, they take it as a way of getting public attention. Would they do so if they did not know that their resource had influence?”
According to Yulia Pankratova, video content editor of ProTenge, media power increases once they cooperate. Today some journalists would make a post, tomorrow others would ask a minister relevant hard questions, the day after tomorrow still others would send a request, and some would extract data from the database. This is how the topic gets wider attention, which means higher possibility of the change.
Meanwhile, according to Kim, it is difficult to say about global influence on authorities, and said, “It’s unprofitable for officials to show the cause-and-effect relationship, ‘You have written about us, we changed it.” They do not want to make it a habit. Therefore, we cannot know for sure. But I believe that many decisions are made at the top level taking into account public response, including media.”
According to Askhat Niyazov, state bodies and local executive bodies have started to monitor new media that ask awkward questions because they cannot influence them, they cannot prohibit them to publish anything, unlike state media.
Closer to people
Yulia Pankratova explained bigger influence on public processes by the fact that new media speak human language.
“Many colleagues have launched their own small media because they set their own rules there, yet it is a big responsibility. You do not have any editor-in-chief, but you are responsible to the people. And important things are your reputation, trust in you, to make people read your outlet,” Pankratova said.
Sergei Kim called another reason of influence of new media: they initially exist in a competitive field. If they write about vague problems, everyone stops reading them, and they vanish very soon, even faster than traditional media.
“State media and media controlled by authorities do not show problems in real detail because they are not interested in it. And ‘Khabar’ (main government channel – Editor’s note) in 2023 is not what it was back in 2010, they publish moderate criticism, too.”
However, according to Sergei Kim, the state-run media and a person who is independent from the state have different ways to describe reality.
“When your existence depends on budgetary money, you can have a desire to smooth out rough edges and not to show authorities in a bad light. We have a very strong self-censorship even if there are no direct orders from the top,” Kim said.
It may be the reason why Vadim Boreiko and many others cannot find any hype stories in traditional media. Thus, according to the journalist, they publish not only fewer scandals, but also fewer analytical materials. According to him, all traditional media – both official and loyal – have turned into information media. They do not ask questions – they only provide information without further analysis.
“What kind of journalist is he/she who does not ask questions? Small media ask questions, pull sensitive strings of both authorities and the society. I have reached the extreme degree of freedom now when I work on my own channel. I ask freely questions to myself, my speakers, audience and authorities. I am not saying I have no red lines in my work. The point is I set them myself. In my opinion, freedom is not when you are allowed, but when you prohibit something to yourself,” Boreiko said.
The result of such freedom is obvious: no one has ever called ProTenge, or ‘Giperborei’ and demanded them to remove the material – despite hot topics covered by them. No one has called ‘Obozhayu!’, either. Although the project originally existed in the format of programme ‘Akimy’ on Khabar TV channel, and officials used to ask for removal all the time. The only difference from YouTube, according to Niyazov, is that the foul language had to be cut from a television version, and it was prohibited to film regional akims.
Environmental impact
‘Education’ of readers and audience can be added to the list of positive changes that appeared with the coming of new media. According to Vadim Boreiko, most aggressive commentators of his publications have tempered their criticism over time and started to take different points of view easier. Askhat Niyazov feels thrilled because people in regions copy his project and make TikTok videos with questions to officials.
ProTenge has even launched a course on how to work with public contracts, how to speak with officials, how to write requests and tell about it ethically. Over 70 people passed the training, most of whom were ordinary Kazakhstanis, who already make impressive projects. For example, an Almaty resident wants Yerbolat Dosayev, akim of the city, to announce conditions of the memorandum with the Russian Wildberries (previously, the company demanded special privileges in the market of Kazakhstan). And a resident of Aktobe opened a Telegram channel, where he told in detail what the city spends money for.
Media critic Sergei Kim called attention to another change: due to new media, journalism has become even braver – it was impossible to imagine this number of materials that critically review the reality of Kazakhstan just 5-10 years ago.
“Journalists constantly try to push the limits. But the state is doing the opposite. They want to narrow the limits so that we do not ask too many questions,” the media critic said. “This constant struggle is good: as we know from the history, stagnation always results in something bad. Traditional media would hardly work as new media. But we cannot deny the fact that they (traditional media) have become braver, while new media have become more professional in terms of form. This is a mutual enrichment.”
This publication was funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of IWPR and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.