Features | Politics | Central Asia

With Strict Agendas and Silent Corridors Kazakhstan’s Kurultai Is Muzzling the Press

Journalists covering the country’s parliament are pushing back against new rules that constrict their ability to question officials.

When Kazakhstan’s Kurultai convened in late August for the first time, there were new rules for the media. Journalists in the Kazakh capital’s parliament building were no longer able to question deputies in the corridors. The new rules set firm boundaries not only on where, but what, they could ask members of the country’s new unicameral parliament. 

At the opening of the Kurultai’s first session on August 28, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proclaimed the body would “radically modernize the system of government and provide a powerful impetus to the work of the entire state apparatus.” Later in his speech he urged the Kutultai to become “a platform for national dialogue to develop solutions to key issues in society.”

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When Kazakhstan’s Kurultai convened in late August for the first time, there were new rules for the media. Journalists in the Kazakh capital’s parliament building were no longer able to question deputies in the corridors. The new rules set firm boundaries not only on where, but what, they could ask members of the country’s new unicameral parliament. 

At the opening of the Kurultai’s first session on August 28, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proclaimed the body would “radically modernize the system of government and provide a powerful impetus to the work of the entire state apparatus.” Later in his speech he urged the Kutultai to become “a platform for national dialogue to develop solutions to key issues in society.”

The boundaries of that dialogue, however, are to be set by the Kurultai itself. 

As explained by the Kurultai’s Deputy Chief of Staff Bolat Kalyanbekov in a September 2 Facebook post, “All interactions between journalists and deputies – as well as invited members of the Government – will now take place exclusively within the press center and strictly in relation to the Kurultai’s agenda.”

Kalyanbekov stated that briefings would be held on a regular basis and laid out the rationale behind the decision to bar off-topic questions.

“Our goal is to communicate the substance of the draft laws under consideration by the Kurultai to the public as clearly and comprehensively as possible – explaining the significance of each new legal provision and how the decisions being made may impact the lives of citizens,” he wrote.

Kalyanbekov also argued that the new rules were consistent both with Kazakh law and “established global practices.”

That’s not quite how Fiona O’Brien, the Europe and Central Asia regional director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), sees it. “Allowing journalists to informally approach and question deputies in the halls of parliament, and to ask........

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