OSCE Media Representative demands action after attack on Kazakh journalist

VIENNA, 3 September 2002 - The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve, has asked the Government of Kazakhstan to bring to justice those responsible for the attack on Sergei Duvanov, a journalist and human rights defender who was assaulted and severely injured in Almaty on the evening of 27 August.

"I urge the Kazakh Government to take all necessary steps to investigate this outrageous act", Mr. Duve wrote in a letter to the Kazakh Foreign Minister, Kasymzhomart Tokayev.

Both Mr. Duve and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) had condemned this violent attack on 30 August.

Even before the attack, Mr. Duve had intervened on behalf of Mr. Duvanov with the Kazakh authorities. On 17 July, the OSCE Media Representative approached Foreign Minister Tokayev regarding the charge of criminal libel levelled against the journalist for "infringing the honour and dignity of the President".