KZBlog

The Contradictory State of Kazakhstan on RFE/RL. Perhaps most surprisingly, the article seems to imply that a lot of court cases brought against journalists for slander or dishonoring the government end up in small fines:

When he walked into a Kazakh appellate court last month, independent “Taszharghan” newspaper journalist Almas Kusherbaev fully expected the court to reduce a substantial fine over an article he had written about rising food prices….Much to the journalist’s surprise, however, the appellate court not only failed to reduce the penalty but instead increased the sum tenfold to around $200,000 — effectively closing down “Taszharghan.”

“Usually the procedure is that when you go to a higher level [court], they should be reviewing the decision in terms of the law, in terms of rights and reason — that is, looking at the expertise that led to the decision,” Kusherbaev told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service. “But here it appears the ruling was reviewed as an appeal from the plaintiff, who had originally demanded more money.”