Aina-Plus newspaper shut down

Aina-Plus newspaper shut down because of "Kazakhgate"

On April 7, when the ninth issue of the newspaper Aina-Plus (the continuation of the project DAT) was published, deputy editor of the newspaper Ms. Bakhytgul Makimbai was advised by the publishing house "Vremya-Print" that publication of the newspaper was suspended. As it became known later, court marshals handed managers of the publishing house a ruling of the Almaty interregional administrative court saying that the newspaper publication was suspended for three months and an administrative fine was levied in the amount of 200 monthly calculated rates or 206,000 tenges.

It has turned out that a trial in absentia took place on March 16, 2006 on a basis of a lawsuit filed by Mr. Zh. Mursalin, director of internal policy department of the Almaty akimat (administration), who sought to suspend publication of the newspaper Aina-Plus. The authorities claimed that the newspaper Aina-Plus appears in the registration documents of the Kazakh ministry of culture, information and sports as an information and reference edition, which became the reason for this initiative of theirs.

It should be mentioned that the administrative court and the internal policy department distort the very notion of "information" in this case. There is a notion of information as a journalism genre, and there is a notion of information as a source of facts and various data. As a rule, the ministry of culture, information and sports registers not a genre of published materials, but the thematic approach of a certain edition.

For instance, the court refers in its ruling to materials that contain information on facts that took place in a certain place, voiced by a certain person at a certain time, etc. However, the court used the notion of information as a publication genre in its ruling. In accordance with the terms of the Certificate, the basic thematic approach is publication of information and reference materials, the court ruling says. However, issue No. 1 (1) of February 9, 2006 of the newspaper Aina-Plus printed by the publishing house "Vremya-Print" contains a socio-political article on the first page about the documents on the commission that investigated corruption in Kazakhstan and was headed by Mr. Z. Nurkadilov…Pages 1,2,3,4 and 5 of the issue contain similar articles entitled "Documents, like manuscripts, do not burn…especially when they are connected with the "Kazakhgate" by S. Medetbekov; "President Nazarbayev's boomerangs" by S. Duvanov; an article in the state langiage «Eldi erte bilu erge syn" by Zh. Tuyakbai; "Officials legalize their assets" by R. Taukina; "Check! Mate? Stalemate" by A. Kossanov; "Dealing as planned…" by E. Khvatal'; and "Nurkadilov's case not closed" by R. Taukina. The last page contains a picture of Mr. B. Abilov and an address by Mr. G. Akimov, Ms. D. Agaliyeva and other members of the "Aibat" movement with the appeal to «Defend Bolat!"

All the materials listed by the court contain information voiced by concrete persons and the newspaper Aina-Plus tells its readers about this. The court ruling says that the court proceeding was started on the basis of an administrative charge sheet of February 24, 2006 allegedly made up by department director Mr. Zh. Mursalin. Members of the editorial board and the owner of the newspaper, the PR agency Almaty International company, learnt about the above charge sheet after they received the court ruling. The internal policy department of the Almaty akimat failed to inform the persons named in the administrate charge sheet.

It should be mentioned that even after the court ruling of 16 March 2006 was made, another four issues of the newspaper were published and nobody was aware that the publication had been suspended - apparently except the court itself and the administration department.

The court ruling contains false and unfaithful data. For instance, neither a department representative nor a court marshal met with the owner of the newspaper Aina-Plus. The owner was not handed the administrative charge sheet in question, nor he was served with a subpoena since the owner of the newspaper of the company PR agency Almaty International, Mr. Zhankel'dy Yestenbayev had never resided in the village Novoalekseyevka. He was officially registered, but never lived there.

The claim that the court and the department officials failed to locate the defendants in the case is a thundering lie, as page 15 of the newspaper contains publisher's imprint, contact information, phone numbers, postal and e-mail addresses of the editorial board. By the way, employees of the internal policy department never failed to contact the editorial office by phone during the period in question on this or that matter. In the last three months, the editorial office was repeatedly visited by a police officer who allegedly came to verify passport data of its members. The office was also repeatedly visited by a person who said he was a labor ministry official and came to check labor contracts of the editorial office members with their employer. Persons in civvies saying they are gasmen, firemen or others come to the newspaper office on a daily basis. But the court and the city administration department have failed to find the office!

The newspaper editorial office regards the court ruling as a gross violation of our constitutional right to receive and impart information. The goal of our newspaper is clear and simple – to provide our readers with maximum objective and unbiased information on the developments inside Kazakhstan and abroad. We are open to all: the authorities and their critics. There are no restricted topics or undesirable characters for us. Apparently, this principled stand of our editorial board has become the reason for such a clumsy attempt of the authorities to shut down the newspaper governed by the principle: no paper, no problem.

On April 24 a trial is to begin in the US on charges brought against President Nazarbayev's adviser J. Giffen dubbed the "Kazakhgate" scandal. Everybody knows that since 1998, all the editions published under the DAT project have regularly reported the details of this dirty graft scandal involving high-ranking Kazakh officials. The authorities fear that the truth about the trial will leak; they do not want the public to learn about the trial. Publication of the newspaper Aina-Plus is suspended right in the period when the US trial is to begin, which in our opinion is not just a coincidence.

Information about the publishing project DAT

The DAT project has been published since 1998. That year, seven months after its first issue was published, the newspaper DAT was shut down by a court ruling on a wire-drawn lawsuit filed by an official. The court ordered the newspaper to pay the official an enormous amount of money. The newspaper property was confiscated. After a short pause, the project was published under a title "SolDAT" (which stands for "The same DAT" in Kazakh). However, three years later, in 2003, the newspaper was shut down by a court ruling on a lawsuit of the financial police; Mr. Yermurat Bapi, the newspaper editor-in-chief, was banned to engage in journalism for 5 years.

Once again, the project was published as a newspaper Zhuma-Times, but in January 2006 the newspaper's owner was liquidated and the newspaper registration was annulled. The reason behind this was insulting the honor and dignity of a presidential candidate (namely Mr. Nazarbayev), since in the run-up to the election the paper published stories related to the Kazakhgate.

In January 2006, activists of the Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan (RNPK) suggested that a registered newspaper Aina-Plus be used in the framework of the DAT project, as the information ministry had resisted every attempts of the editorial office to register a new name of the newspaper. The newspaper Aina-Plus was published for just three months – from January 20 through April 6 - and was shut down again by the administrative court.