Journalists and Activists from Kazakhstan Highlight Media Pressure and Legal Challenges at OSCE Forum

In Warsaw, participants at the OSCE human rights conference discussed issues of corporate raiding against independent media, persecution of lawyers, and manipulated elections, Orda.kz reports.

Among the speakers was Orda.kz Editor-in-Chief Gulnara Bazhkenova, who presented the international community with a detailed account of the pressure campaign targeting her publication. She described threats, document forgery, a corporate raid, and attempts to erase her name from legal databases.

The full presentation can be watched in our Telegram via link.

Bazhkenova said she had been asked to transfer 70% of Orda’s ownership to businessman Vyacheslav Kim, co-owner of Kaspi Bank, in exchange for “quiet work.”

I want to draw your attention to this: Kaspi Bank operates in London, has an office there, and is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York.

But at home, it helps the government to crush independent journalism.

Even Kim Jong-il was more honest than our Kim — he at least admitted he was a bad guy. The Kazakh Kim hides behind Western values, earns money from them, and then destroys those same values at home — the rule of law and freedom of speech.

She explained that the attempted takeover involved manipulation of state databases and that courts refused to even consider an independent IT assessment. The pressure, she added, intensified after Orda.kz aired reports on the Sadykov case and the alleged suicide of a security services officer.

In Kazakhstan, independence and success are always suspect. That means you need to be monitored. We even have a specific word — curator. That's the name for the representative of the National Security Committee who 'oversees' the editorial boards. We didn't have one. That became our problem.

This is not a private story of one company. These are the conditions in which all independent journalists in Kazakhstan must survive — under pressure from an authoritarian regime, corruption, and the criminal alliance between power and business.

I came here not as a victim. I came as a journalist who believes in facts and in truth. And I want you to hear this: in Kazakhstan, there are people who keep doing their work.

Who believe that freedom of speech is not a Western value — it is a human one.

And if the OSCE can still do something today — let it once again become what it was meant to be, not just a protocol forum, but a voice of conscience.

Other Kazakh speakers echoed concerns about declining freedoms. Human rights lawyer Murat Adam noted a sharp rise in the persecution of lawyers over the past three years, with criminal and administrative codes being used as tools of intimidation for alleged disclosure of investigative data or “false information.”

He reminded participants that President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev had promised in 2021 to equalize the rights of lawyers and prosecutors, but “the situation has only worsened.”

These facts directly violate the 1990 UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which require the state to ensure that lawyers are not subject to harassment or threats for the conscientious exercise of their professional activities.

Adam urged the OSCE to recommend reforms to protect lawyers from retaliation, remove repressive legal provisions, and create mechanisms to ensure fair representation in court.

Anar Ibrayeva, head of the Qadir-Kasiet human rights organization, reported that 33 lawyers, including 14 women, had faced threats in 2025, and nearly 18% of lawyers experience repeated risks annually.

However, new types of threats have emerged — unjustified removal of a lawyer from the courtroom, denial of access to the defense, criminal liability for disclosing investigative secrets, and denial of access to the courthouse.

Civil activist Sanzhar Bokayev described Kazakhstan’s political system as a “room of distorting mirrors,” accusing the authorities of manipulating the Constitution, elections, and anti-corruption rhetoric.

He said he personally won the 2023 election according to precinct protocols, but his mandate was handed to another candidate.

In Kazakhstan, a genuine change of power remains impossible. The decision on who can run for president or become a member of parliament rests solely with the authorities. The Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to vote and be elected. However, Article 54 of the election law requires that a presidential candidate have at least five years of public service experience. This requirement completely invalidates the constitutional right of most citizens. Only two percent of the population has such experience, meaning 98% of Kazakhstanis are automatically disqualified from running for office.

Bokayev also criticized the government for rejecting popular petitions, including those on time zone changes and recycling fees, noting that more than two billion euros in “environmental fees” have been collected without reports on their expenditures.

It's time to stop confusing stability with stagnation. For young people, what the authorities call stability has long been a drag on development. We're told, 'Reforms, we can't rush.' But behind these words lies the 30-year-long retention of power in the same hands. The people of Kazakhstan can't wait forever.

Earlier, Orda.kz reported that after the editorial office refused to hand over control of the publication, it faced fake ads, deepfakes, threats, account hacks, and blocking of social media pages.

Information about the owner of OrdaMedia.kz LLC also disappeared from official databases.
 
Original Author: Ruslan Loginov