Sometimes journalists of Kazakhstan have to catch running ministers in corridors, literally hustle into government elevators to ask questions to high-ranking officials and always be prepared for a detention by the police from any public event. Has it always been like that?
CABAR.asia asked journalists how they assess the availability of key political newsmakers of Kazakhstan – the president, representatives of the government, and the parliament.
Estranged parliament
The main indicator of openness, according to the Astana-based journalist with over 20 years of experience Botagoz Iskakova, should be the parliament. A priori, people’s representatives that can be freely reached by all Kazakhstanis must sit there.
“I began to cover the work of the parliament in 2003, and in 2004 I obtained my first yearly accreditation. At that time, journalists received permanent cards that were valid for both houses of parliament – Mazhilis and Senate. We did not realise that it was so cool then: you show it to the security, and you can enter the parliament building any time. We used to come over there to have a lunch,” Iskakova said.
She said that previously parliamentary journalists could ask any deputy for comments, without restrictions. But five years ago, the Senate began to ‘estrange itself’ from journalists, and passes stopped working there. Then, there was a requirement for separate accreditation for Mazhilis and Senate.
“However, it turned out to be insufficient: paper passes were not issued any more, but yearly accreditation was still available. Despite the accreditation, the press service of parliament demanded accreditation to enter the plenary session on a weekly basis. Now we cannot enter the Mazhilis unaccompanied. It means that a press secretary must meet you at the entry. He must be responsible for you personally,” Iskakova said ironically.
She also said that now journalists are forbidden to enter deputies’ outer offices unless it was agreed previously. “We used to do it easily and freely in the past.”
Another restriction is that it is not allowed to enter the session hall during plenary sessions of Mazhilis. Media representative used to do it freely in the past. According to Botagoz, she even recorded stanndups inside. Now, journalists may record videos only at the beginning of the plenary session.
“Movements of journalists in the parliament building have been restricted so much that a new requirement was introduced: we should leave the building from the same entrance as we entered from. They explained it by the fact that they record whether we really leave the building. I don’t know why they think that journalists would stay overnight at the parliament if they are not registered as they leave. Every time the ‘regime’ gets tougher,” Botagoz Iskakova said.
Running ministers
“In 2011, when I moved to Astana, I had a chance to reach the minister and prime minister after the government’s session,” said Ainur Koskina, journalist with 20 years of experience.
But the pandemic has changed the ‘degree of availability’ of high-ranking officials. “It has become a sort of salvation of our civil servants from journalists. Everything has gone online, and our officials have liked it so much that they still use it,” Koskina said.
She admitted that the government began to meet offline after pandemic restrictions were lifted. But later, only reporting ministers would ‘physically’ attend government sessions. The rest attended online. “So, the government should tell us that they still have the pandemic or justify their decision otherwise,” the journalist called for openness.
She cannot understand why representatives of the cabinet of ministers try to avoid journalists. “I’m telling you we can reach them anywhere!” Koskina said highlighting one nuance, “There are two exits from the government building: the Prime Minister (Alikhan Smailov – Editor’s note) leaves the building stealthily via one exit, but now other ministers, and vice ministers use this exit, too. We have not had such a situation with previous prime ministers!”
Questions to the president
As to the access to the president, Botagoz Iskakova once saw how Nursultan Nazarbayev, ex-president of Kazakhstan, approached journalists.
“It was in 2005, when we were at ‘AstanaGenPlan’,” Bogatoz Iskakova said. “He was not supposed to come before the media. But someone asked him the first question, and he answered, and then the spontaneous briefing took place.”
According to Koskina, Nazarbayev have given press conferences to journalists: “He did not do it frequently. By the way, I asked him questions. It was a surprise for many that I was allowed to ask a question. What happened after Tokayev (incumbent president of Kazakhstan – Editor’s note) came to power? He had only one press conference.”
Koskina feels alarmed about Tokayev giving interviews to foreign journalists, while not appearing before Kazakh journalists.
“Tokayev does not give interviews because there are so many questions to him, which he would not answer,” said Saniya Toiken, journalist in the capital (her experience also exceeds 20 years). “I don’t rule out that he could have a stroke after hearing the questions. For example, Nazarbayev has shown to all Kazakhstanis that he was still sitting pretty, starting from playing ‘old new’ Kazakhstan and continuing with questions about Kantar (protests in January 2022 – Editor’s note), plus the question about the funeral feast in memory of Bolat Nazarbayev (the funeral feast in memory of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s younger brother was shown on the main pro-government TV channel. The funeral of Bolat Nazarbayev was attended by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov – Editor’s note).
Information by order
Power representatives have become really distant from journalists, although they declare openness and closeness. Human rights defender in the field of media Diana Okremova confirmed it and explained why it happened.
“The state deems that it can control the information space. It is confirmed by the increasing amounts spent on the state information order,” Okremova indicated the first reason.
The thing is that the number of bloggers has increased in recent years, and officials see that it is very difficult to ‘save face’ unlike the time when only the media had the monopoly on information.
“Not to look ridiculous in foolish situations, not to be forced to answer hard questions about their effectiveness, officials try to ‘measure out’ information about them by means of public contract,” Okremova said.
The second reason is that officials of all levels do not perceive that they should work primarily for the public good.
“It is natural that there should be results of their work in order to report to the society, talk to journalists, while many of them do not have such results. It is easier to keep undesirable people out, say, journalists, rather than be responsible for their scope of work,” Okremova said.
Diana Okremova finds this politics a failure. If the society does not get reliable and quality information, people would collect rumours and the number of fake news will increase.
Saniya Toiken proposes to admit that there are no independent media outlets left in Kazakhstan. “This is the answer to the questions about openness, access to information, in general,” the journalist said grievously.
Main photo: Freepik.com
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