Kazakhstan keen to enhance democracy, introducing media reforms, minister tells OSCE

VIENNA, 26 July 2007 - Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, the Minister of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan, said today his country is committed to democracy, and is ratifying international agreements and treaties on civil, political, socio-economic and cultural rights, and developing freedom of speech.

Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council, the Organization's main regular decision-making body, he said: "We are united by the desire to make Kazakhstan even more democratic, our information sphere more open and our media more free, contemporary and independent. We have embarked upon a firm course of constructing a modern information community, the fundamental elements of which will be the e-Government, digital television with the corresponding expansion of the services granted, access to the Internet for the rural population, including the farthermost areas and equal and general access to modern information services."

Minister Yertysbayev said Kazakhstan was paying special attention to enhancing the role of non-governmental organizations, and developing its "Trinity of Languages" policy, which includes English, as the present day language of the international community, Russian, as a regional lingua franca, and Kazakh, as the State language.

He also said the government was considering amendments to further liberalize existing legislation "in the field of regulating the information sphere", adding: "The liberalization of our legislation will also concern sanctions regarding journalists within the framework of defamation."

The new amendments will follow OSCE recommendations regarding provisions on protecting journalists' sources. The Kazakh Government, according to the Minister, is in favour of abolishing registration for the electronic media and developing self-regulation mechanisms.

Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media, welcomed the announced plans to reform the laws regulating the media in Kazakhstan. "It is crucial to de-criminalize the handling of journalists' mistakes; abolish insult provisions that protect officials; ease the administrative framework; and enhance pluralism of the press, especially in broadcasting. We hope that some of our earlier suggestions will be taken on board in the new drafts, and they will also be discussed with the media NGOs of the country. We stand ready to continue a constructive dialogue with the authorities," he said.

Minister Yertysbayev said that choosing Kazakhstan to chair the OSCE would "be a worthy assessment" of the country's "sincere aspirations, firm and irreversible steps on the path to further democratization and development of liberties in our society".