Temirlan Yensebek, creator and author of “Qaznews24,” an agency of satirical news, has been detained on Saturday in Almaty. He is expected to stand trial under accusations of incitement of hatred. The court placed Yensebek in custody for the duration of the preliminary investigation. If convicted, he is facing up to 7 years in prison.

Civil activist and blogger Temirlan Yensebek, author of satirical media account Qaznews24, which masks as a news agency, was apprehended on Saturday afternoon at this home during a search. The same evening he stood a preliminary hearing and left the courthouse in handcuffs. The activist remains in custody for the next two months, until the conclusion of the preliminary investigation.

Yensebek’s lawyer Zhanar Balgabaeva told journalists that the reason for the arrest was the comic song “Yo, orystar” (“Yo, Russians”), which Yensebek added to a satirical post about Russian TV presenter Tina Kandelaki. A representative of the public prosecutor’s office filed a complaint about the post, which set events in motion.

Read more on Novastan: Pressure from Russia increases on Central Asian media outlets

Satire under scrutiny

Qaznews24 can be seen as a Kazakh analog of “The Onion” – a popular instagram page which publishes satirical pieces and perky comments on current affairs and social issues. Since its founding in 2021, Qaznews24 has featured dozens of posts about poverty, corruption, nepotism, and idolization of the powerful, laughing out conspiracy theorists, moralising hypocrits and sycophants in politics.

Although the page openly states its satirical orientation in every post, its content frequently causes confusion as the reports are being mistaken for real news. In 2021, Yensebek was accused of spreading misinformation and, after a search in his house, brought to the police office for questioning. Police issued a statement that Qaznews24 content was “disinforming the population and misleading the citizens,” labeling Yensebek as a fake news creator.

Yensebek’s colleagues then started a campaign called “Satire is not a crime,” demanding to stop the prosecution and ensure freedom of speech, which is guaranteed in the Kazakhstan Constitution. The campaign was supported by international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch. After linguistic experts showed that humoristic content cannot be qualified as knowingly false information, the case was closed.

However, as recent events have shown, the authorities were not finished with Qaznews24 just yet.

“New Kazakhstan,” old methods

On Saturday, 18 January 2025, Yensebek’s house was searched again – this time under the pretext of Temirlan “inciting ethnic hatred.” He was then brought to the police station and faced a short evening trial. The judge mandated his detention for two months pending completion of a preliminary investigation. This is the harshest option provided by law.

After two months of investigation, Yesenbek will likely await another trial. If found guilty, he could be facing a penalty varying from a fine to restriction of freedom for a period of 2 to 7 years, to imprisonment for the same period.

Sunday, January 19, saw a new development to the story. Journalist and ex-editor-in-chief of art and culture web-portal Art of Her, Rus Biketov, went out on a solitary picket in support of Yensebek in Almaty. He was immediately apprehended by the police. On the same day, Biketov was sentenced to 15 days detention for violating the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the procedure for organizing and holding peaceful assemblies.

No laughing matter

Historically, Kazakhstan has never scored high on ratings measuring freedom of expression and freedom of the press. According to Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report, Kazakhstan has a score of 34 out of 100, placing it in the “not free” category. RSF World Press Freedom Index puts Kazakhstan on place 142 out of 180, falling from place 134 in 2023. Global Expression Report defines Kazakhstan as “highly restricted.”

A slight improvement on the Freedom of Expression index from V-Dem Project does not really change the overall picture. This index shows the “[b]est estimate of the extent to which people can discuss political matters at home and in the public sphere, the press, and media are free and can present different political perspectives, and the freedom of academic and cultural expression,” and Kazakhstan’s score of 0,43/1 can be described as mediocre at best.

Read more on Novastan: In Central Asia, the Freedom of Press is in Decline

The prosecution of dissidents is not new either. Indeed, Kazakh authorities have shown a considerable lack of humor – and mostly, inability to take valid criticism – on various occasions already. One might wonder how in a country where police uses torture against protesters and organized crime is on the rise, a satirical account poses the greatest threat. Yet, in reality, this crackdown on satire is all but inconsequential. The idea is not to fight the greatest evil, but to target those who dared to speak up about it.

While the situation with Temirlan Yensebek might look absurd, his detention illustrates a concerning development in restricting freedom of the speech. More importantly, it aims to send a clear warning to civil society. As Factcheck.kz editor Adil Jalilov writes in his column, “the expected result of the arrest and criminal case against QazNews24 author Temirlan Yensebek . . . [is], [o]bviously, an increased self-censorship in the entire media community.”

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The post When Freedom of Speech Is a Joke: Author of a Satirical News Outlet Detained in Kazakhstan appeared first on Novastan English.

Alisa, 15 years old, helps her mother during summer time to run their little yard restaurant where they serve homemade dishes. But her wish and hope is to study one day and to become a journalist.

Credit: Irina Unruh (Germany)

This photo is part of our series “Central Asia through the lens of …”, where we present photographers from Central Asia and their work. To learn more about Irina Unruh, check out our French or German website!

Find all of our photos of the day here.

The post Hope of youth appeared first on Novastan English.

Fergana News, the biggest Russian news site dedicated to Central Asia, is experiencing major financial difficulties and is at risk of closing down.

This article was originally published on Novastan’s French website on 9 October 2020.  Since then, not much has changed for Fergana News.“We still haven’t received the wages we are owed (up to 4 months’ salary for some of us),” Nicholas Lewis, a former employee, told Novastan in March 2021. Former staff members have decided to go directly to the company’s investor.

On the homepage of the English version of the news website Fergana, a banner immediately grabs the reader’s attention: “Support Fergana!” This Russian media platform, one of the first to focus on Central Asia and its migrants living in Russia, is on the brink of closure due to a lack of funding. In early October 2020, only two employees remained, including the site’s founder Daniil Kislov. Freelancers have been working without pay in order to keep the website alive, with several articles still being published every day.

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Requesting donations from readers can only be a temporary solution. In an interview with Novastan, Daniil Kislov reported that the website raised around “2,000 or 3,000 dollars”, which was enough to pay two employees’ salaries for the month of June. “It’s not bad but I was hoping for a higher amount,” he added. He explained that only a minority of readers are able to support the website financially. The majority are Central Asian migrant workers living in Russia who don’t have the means to pay for news.

False hopes

The financial difficulties, according to Daniil Kislov, started when the majority shareholder withdrew funding. At one point, the investor simply stopped answering the organisation’s phone calls, explained Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in an article covering the history of Fergana. Without warning, he withdrew all financial support and Fergana employees were forced to take unpaid leave for nearly six months.

The relationship between the investor and the news source had, however, started on good terms. Daniil Kislov explained to Novastan that Fergana.ru is a limited liability company (LLC) whose “main share [had been sold to] one of the famous oligarchs” two years ago. He did not reveal the oligarch’s identity but mentioned he was a Kazakh businessman who had “business interests in Russia, in Uzbekistan and internationally.”

“For the first time in the history of Fergana.ru, I had a team of 20 in Moscow alone,” the journalist recalls. “We had an Uzbek, a Tajik, a Turkmen, and a Kyrgyz department. In each department we had 2-3 editors, a main editor and a deputy, a correspondent, SEO managers, and so on.” The website was prospering: “For example, in 2016, the year when Karimov died, we had 5 million unique visitors. In 2019, we had more than 8 million unique visitors,” explained Daniil Kislov.

Blocked, unblocked, blocked again

After the relationship with the main shareholder ended, the situation was made worse when the Russian authorities blocked access to the website. In fact, the website Fergana.ru has been blocked in Russia by Roskomnadzor, the federal body responsible for media in Russia, since the end of 2019. It was a tough blow as the majority of readers, and therefore of advertisers, are located in Russia.

Throughout Central Asia, accessing the website also proved difficult. Uzbekistan blocked it after the Andijan ‘events’, the violent suppression of a protest leading to hundreds of deaths in May 2005, and only restored access in 2018. The website has been blocked and unblocked several times in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Accessing the website from Turkmenistan remains impossible “probably for good”, according to Daniil Kislov.

Read more: In Tajikistan, government control still slows down internet

To get around this obstacle, the news outlet set up several ‘mirror sites’, which are copies of the site using different URLs : fergana.ru, fergana.agency, fergana.site, fergana.plus and fergana.media. Some, but not all of these addresses are blocked in certain countries.

Unclear future

As of October 2020, the news outlet, or what was left of it, still didn’t have a new source of funding. “Are we going to keep on working?” Daniil Kislov wondered. “Maybe we should stop and close everything. Maybe we should work with a reduced budget. I don’t know.”

For now, the editor in chief still works as much as possible, asking journalists to publish their work without payment. He mentioned the example of a Tajik journalist who accepts to work for Fergana for free because it’s a platform where they can write anonymous articles that would not otherwise be published in Tajikistan. The website is kept alive by the desire to share information, but for how long?

Valentine Baldassari
Novastan.org

Translated from French by Alice Coveney

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Since the death of long-time ruler Islam Karimov in 2016, Uzbekistan has seen greater media freedom under his successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev. However, recent cases of imprisonment, harassment, and the use of intimidation tactics show that the Uzbek government is still trying to silence media outlets, freelance reporters, and citizen journalists.

3 February 2021 marked the moment that independent reporter Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska finally received accreditation to work in Uzbekistan. For months prior she experienced bureaucratic impediments and sexual harassment as she struggled to obtain a press card. The Tashkent-based independent reporter, originally from Poland, has worked with Al-Jazeera English and Eurasianet, among others.

Her government contact had begun sending her inappropriate messages via the messaging app Telegram, and had also made unwanted physical advances. Upon rejection, he began to criticise her coverage, demanding she write more positive articles about Uzbekistan. Pikulicka-Wilczewska, whose Uzbekistan coverage for Al-Jazeera includes articles on judicial malpractice and the ramifications of coronavirus for civil liberties, was then denied extension of her accreditation on the grounds that she was writing for outlets other than the one she was initially accredited for.

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Pikulicka-Wilczewska wrote about her experiences on Twitter on 1 February, triggering outrage and calls for investigation. Eventually, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry announced they had fired the perpetrator and swiftly granted Pikulicka-Wilczewska press credentials.

However, according to Pikulicka-Wilczewska, this outcome does not signify substantive change: “I don’t see this as any sign of change. They just didn’t have a choice. They had to do it,” she told Eurasianet. “But people might now be a bit more careful how they treat journalists, and how they treat women in general.”

Mirziyoyev promises change

The “change” she does not see happening is the increased press freedom promised by the president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. In August 2019, Mirziyoyev addressed the first World Influencers Congress (WIC) in Tashkent, referencing the gradual increase in media freedoms in Uzbekistan since he assumed office. He stated: “In recent years, Uzbekistan has been opening up to the world and wants to bring the whole truth to the international community. Most importantly, you can discuss, criticise. Know that the President will always support you.”

He expressed a similar sentiment on 4 February 2021, telling journalists to during a visit to the Fergana Region: “Do not stop delivering justice, do not be afraid. We will not deviate from this path. If you advocate justice, write the truth, the leaders may hate you now, but eventually they will start working. This will lead to systematic work. I wish you the best in your work.”

Mirziyoyev has been eager to show that he is modernising Uzbekistan and enabling freedom of speech­, in contrast to his predecessor Islam Karimov. Some of his reform pledges have been carried out: in May 2018, the broadcaster Voice of America became the first USA-headquartered outlet to receive accreditation in Uzbekistan in over a decade, followed by Eurasianet and others. Registered media outlets such as Uzbek-language daily Kun.uz have occasionally published articles on sensitive issues like forced labour in the cotton industry.

Government media censorship

Pikulicka-Wilczewska’s case is not unique, except perhaps for its swift and fortunate resolution.

Despite Mirziyoyev’s promises, the media remains under strict control. Journalists are often denied official information and statistics are rarely made publicly available. While Uzbekistan’s law on mass media and information states that anybody is entitled to receive information from the government (as long as it does not constitute a state secret), this rarely occurs: many government press services only divulge information to favoured journalists.

Uzbekistan remains near the bottom of many freedom of speech tables, ranking 156^th in the world according to the 2020 Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom ratings. Freedom House labels the country as “not free”, scoring it 10 out of 100 in 2020.

The government also maintains an official list of banned material and websites, which includes particular media pertaining to Islam and criticisms of government religious regulation, as well as social media accounts of imams and religious preachers.

Censorship extends to citizen journalists

It is not only mainstream media that is being suppressed. Days before Mirziyoyev’s speech in the Fergana Region, Otabek Sattoriy, a citizen journalist based in the southern city of Termiz, was seized outside his house by plainclothes Interior Ministry personnel on allegations of fraud and extortion. Human Rights Watch have called the charges “dubious”.

His YouTube channel “Khalq Fikri” (People’s Opinion) discusses issues including gas and electricity shortages and the demolition of people’s homes in the Surxondaryo Region. His sister Sitora told Eurasianet that police searched his home the day after his arrest, confiscating his computer and memory sticks. Another citizen journalist, Farkhod Ismailov, was subject to accusations of forming a joint criminal enterprise with Sattoriy and also had his home searched.

In the exclave of So’x, the citizen journalist Haydarjon Bobohaydarov (who publishes under the name Dadahon Khaydarov) was arrested after calling for the ousting of Governor Shukhrat Ganiev of the Fergana region. Bobohaydarov had criticised Ganiev’s neglect of the residents of the exclave while they endured conflict over the disputed border with neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. Bobohaydarov, RFE/RL reports, had a hood thrown over his head and was detained on charges of resisting a government official or person performing a civic duty, and participating in mass unrest. Shortly after, in September 2020, Ganiev was appointed deputy prime minister.

Read more on Novastan: The Wife: the short film highlighting domestic violence in Kazakhstan

There are numerous accounts of reporters risking their jobs and freedom to speak out against corruption and the government. One of the most infamous cases is perhaps that of Bobomurod Abdullaev, who in 2017 was accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order of the Republic of Uzbekistan. According to the human rights organisation Amnesty International, Abdullaev spent seven months in a detention centre where he was allegedly tortured in an effort to make him to confess to trumped up charges. After a global outcry from human rights organisations including Amnesty, he was freed from prison, but had to pay 20% of his salary to the state for the next two years.

In light of these examples, despite reforms, Mirziyoyev’s promises seem largely unfulfilled, and journalists still face consequences for criticising the Uzbek government.

Lily Shanagher
Novastan.org

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The post Uzbekistan: harassment incident underlines mistreatment of journalists appeared first on Novastan English.