KZBlog

This article is exactly why a lot of journalism in Kazakhstan is awful, particularly official sources. The article reads in total:

High-level OSCE conference in Astana to focus on tolerance and non-discrimination

Senior government officials, politicians and public figures from the 56 OSCE participating States will meet in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on 29 and 30 June to discuss tolerance and non-discrimination in the OSCE region.

There is absolutely nothing here interesting for the reader and a complete absence of any useful details. In what way will it focus on tolerance? What proposals will be discussed? Who is coming? What problems are there with these issues? Why is this an important issue? Is this Astana’s idea or is this something that was scheduled before Kazakhstan took over the chair of the OSCE? What do experts have to say on this issue?

I bring this up because so much journalism in Kazakhstan is devoid of any kind of information, particularly official statements. We hear what happened but never why or what effect it will have or how people feel about it. Or why we should care about it. Complicated legal measures are not explained so that normal people can understand them. Complicated issues are rarely summarized and the history of events are never given. In fact, I can’t even call the above article journalism. It’s really just a press release.

The problem is that people absorb this kind of article and take it as a model of good journalism when in fact this is what journalists (and bloggers) should not do. The problem in Kazakhstan isn’t so much freedom of the press as having a press that thinks about its readers and digs into stories.