Kazakhstan Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 7, 2013
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country’s media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and produced the first Europe & Eurasia MSI in 2001.
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Download the Complete Kazakhstan MSI Chapter (PDF): 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
MSI Kazakhstan - 2013 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.82
The beginning of 2012 was marked by snap parliamentary elections following the self-dissolution of the Majlis, the lower chamber of parliament. The newly-elected Majlis was multi-party, fulfilling the stated desire of Kazakhstan’s first and only president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Political analysts believe that the early election was motivated by the growing dissatisfaction of the population, as well as the social protest movement that culminated in violent clashes between oil industry workers and police forces in Zhanaozen, in the country’s far southwest, in December 2011. The subsequent changes in the some political appointments, a new development program, replacing Kazakhstan 2030 with Kazakhstan 2050, as well as a series of legal actions against opposition figures and select corrupt officials, were all aimed at stabilizing the regime and preventing a “revolutionary spring” in Kazakhstan.
Mass media were in the epicenter of this social and political turbulence. The expansive conviction of three domestic opposition figures also described a number of non-state mass media outlets as “radicalized media projects controlled by and affiliated with [Mukhtar] Ablyazov,” a former minister and prominent opponent of the regime wanted on embezzlement charges, making the media one of the key subjects of the political lawsuit. Several media outlets were banned by prosecutors on the eve of the first anniversary of the Zhanaozen events, including satellite television channel K+, the Stan TV Internet video news site, Respublica (Republic) and Vzglyad (Viewpoint) newspapers and Respublica’s website, Respublika-kz.info. A total of 8 newspapers and 23 internet media sites, essentially all independent media in the country. By tying the outlets to the convicted and wanted opposition, the government effectively criminalized the leading non-state press. A panelist from Respublica cancelled his participation after being called to court on the day of the discussion. As such, many of these events occurred at the end of 2012 and were only partially considered by the panel.
According to data provided to the panel by Sofia Lapina of the free speech NGO Adil Soz (A Just Word), 68 legislative acts that regulate certain aspects of media activities were passed by Parliament in 2012, and several new draft laws important for mass media were put forward for parliamentary discussion. The transition to digital broadcasting alone required the adoption of several new legal regulations, including a new broadcasting law and 21 other statutes adopted in 2012. In general, active lawmaking is often associated with these or other aspects of media activities.
