Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan: Final Information Network

Aruzhan Sain’s facebook (Local/National)

Author: Aruzhan Sain and activist accounts that she reposts.
Type of Source: Facebook page, social media source.
Access: https://m.facebook.com/aruzhan.sain?ref=content_filter
Updated: Daily to say the least, Sain regularly publishes and does updates on ongoing social issues in Kazakhstan.
The country of origin is Kazakhstan and written in Kazakh, though many of her posts are translated through Facebook into English. She has a very activist perspective, governmental issues other than social injustices that government has failed to acknowledge. The plus side of this facebook account is that the government can not attack Sain’s publishings as easily as journalists and it is critical of the social standards in Kazakhstan without forcing Western ideals. The downside is the language barrier and reliance on google translate that may not be accurate in portraying the tone. Sain is also not a trained journalist or unbiased, so this faces issues with credibility but she can be used as a jumping point. This was the only activist source I was able to find so I thought it was very interesting to have something that has been suppressed by Kazakh government.

 

The Astana Times Twitter (Local/National)

Author: Published by Svezhaya Pressa LLP
Type of Source: Twitter account, social media source.
Access: https://mobile.twitter.com/TheAstanaTimes
Updated: Biweekly print version, and daily twitter/website posts.
The country of origin is Kazakhstan/US, twitter page is in English. It is a group of Americans that moved to Astana, Kazakhstan. The paper is meant for American and English speakers. This source produces articles pertaining to all sectors of Kazakhstan: business, government, sports, etc. The source is from a western perspective, but is still subject to censorship in Kazakhstan. This is a bit more critical of Kazakhstan than Kazinform, but not by much. The source makes it very easy for English speakers to read about events going on in Kazakhstan without any language barrier or translation issues. The downfall, yet again is the censorship. This source always has very interesting articles that other sources, like Kazinform and Radio Free Europe does not address.

 

Kazinform (National)

Author(s): Kasim S Haripov and Kazimzhan Kazybayev
Type of Source: Traditional media, website along with printed paper in Kazakhstan.
Access: http://www.inform.kz/en
Updated: Daily on the website, I was unable to find how frequently the printed version was published.
The country of origin is Kazakhstan, it is published in English, Kazakh, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. Kazinform is the first international news source of Kazakhstan, so local news, governmental news, international news, along with business and health categories are published. The perspective is nationalistic, due to government funding of the news source and the strict media regulation. The source is written by Kazakhs in Kazakhstan along with South Korea, China, Germany, and more. This means that there is no Western mentality in the writing, the downfall to this website is closely linked. The downfall is that since it is not an independent news source and is published in Kazakhstan, there is a lot of censorship and the articles can not be anti-government. This source will give you a Kazakh’s perspective on the issues addressed in each article.

 

Kazakh TV (National)

Author: Part of the “Khabar Agency” with Sandugash Rakhimzhanova as acting director.
Type of Source: TV channel, YouTube account, and written news source.
Access: http://kazakh-tv.kz/en/mainpage/index
Updated: Daily news articles are published and a live stream of the channel is found on the website. The YouTube channel is updated, but less frequently.
The country of origin is Kazakhstan, with the website available in Kazakh, Russian, and English. The portion of the YouTube that I was fascinated with was the Digital Kazakhstan series, but everything from weather, news, culture, cooking is on the site. The perspective is very nationalistic, again due to media censorship. A strength of this source is the connection with citizens, TV can be a much more viable source for people to get news information due to its reach and low cost. But, it can be hard to find relevant information on this site and almost impossible to watch anything of great importance on the website when it come to political or social events. This source is valuable for those wishing to learn more about my country because it is the most common television source in Kazakhstan, and therefore has had the most impact on the spread of media.

BNews (National)

Author: It is a collection of many Kazakh journalists, ran by Kazcontent Corp.                                                                                          Type of Source: Traditional Media website                                                                                                   Access: https://bnews.kz/en                                                                                                                         Updated: Daily on the website, no printed source                                                                                             The country of origin is Kazakhstan, and it is available in Kazakh, English, and Russian. Other than being a news source, it also hosts interviews and allows for journalists to make opinion-based articles that are titled as such. The source perspective is again: nationalistic, most likely due to active censorship. All the journalists publish with their names which makes it impossible to get away with anything unlike independent, anonymous sources (RFE). The strength of this source is the opinion column and there also appears to be a discussion column, though not recently posted. It allows the journalists to more freely convey objections to current even and allows for expert input. A weakness is that some of the articles (‘the expert’) are very quote heavy and do not give much background or analysis on events. This source is valuable in that it performs as a standard news source as well as adding in a level of individuality for the journalists that we haven’t seen in the other sources. None of the other Kazakh news sites allowed for opinion pieces or relied heavily on an expert’s input.

 

Daily Sabah (Regional)

Author: Edited by Begüm Tunakan
Type of Source: Traditional media, printed and online source.
Access: This source is also printed in Turkey, here is the link to Kazakhstan searches: https://www.dailysabah.com/search?key=kazakhstan
Updated: Daily. Daily website additions and daily printing in Turkey.
The country of origin is Turkey, it is posted in English, Dutch, Arabic, and Russian. This source is the Turkish version of Kazinform, international along with sector articles are written. The perspective is a bit more critical of Kazakhstan’s government than Kazakhstan’s sources but less critical than Western sources. This source is available in many languages which makes it very accessible along with the constant updates. The downfalls of this source is that it is not published in Kazakh, so access to Kazakhs is unavailable, and the focus is not on Kazakhstan. Some of the articles published to the Kazakhstan tab are due to regional issues, not necessarily pertaining to Kazakhstan. This will give a perspective somewhere between national-loyalist and Western anti-Kazakh government, which will be the least biased of these news sources.

 

Majlis (Regional)

Author:Radio Free Europe, Mohammad Tahil(?) as curator.
Type of Source: podcast, published in apple’s podcast app as well on RFE.
Access: https://www.rferl.org/z/19887
Updated: Weekly, a podcast is added every Friday.
The country of origin is unclear, just like Radio Free Europe. I am assuming that it is an American company due to a grant they receive from the US. The language is English. This source discusses current events in the Central Asia, though it does not always have a focus on Kazakhstan. The perspective is similar to that of Radio Free Europe’s, fairly western and critical of these governments in Central Asia, but often speakers are brought in to shed some light on the events and testimonials generally make the overall podcast less biased. The upsides of this source is that you can listen anywhere and its easy to access, it provides more context to the relations between Kazakhstan and some of its neighbors, and it includes testimonials that are missing from Radio Free Europe’s articles. The downside is that not every podcast focuses on Kazakhstan. This source is valuable in that it shows that many of the other Central Asian countries are facing similar issues as Kazakhstan, and rather than viewing stuff as isolated to one country, it may be regional issue.

 

Window on Eurasia (Regional/Foreigner Perspective)

Author: Paul Goble, Radio Free Europe journalist and CIA agent.
Type of Source: blog/ new media website
Access: http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com
Updated: Daily, at Goble’s discression
The country of origin is the United States, the language is English. Rather than a focus on Kazakhstan, solely, this source is based on Eurasia. Eurasia technically accounts for about 12 nations in the region, Russia included. Many of these nations are in similar economic, social, and diplomatic situations as Kazakhstan so parallels may be easily found. After reading Radio Free Europe, I expect to see similar analysis on similar articles, but since Goble is an American with vast foreign involvement, his perspective may be slightly different and less biased due to his background. Goble has been involved in Eurasian affairs for a very long time, so he can see how things like Turkey’s alphabet change could influence how Kazakhstan moves on with their alphabet change. A weakness of this source is that not all of the articles are based on Kazakhstan and Goble can be very biased against these Eurasian governments at times. This source is valuable because Goble intends his blog to be a grounds for conversation and greater understanding of the region not just a one-sided conversation.

 

Radio Free Europe (International)

Author: anonymous posts by journalists in Kazakhstan. Radio Free Europe is an organization that allows journalists in media-censored countries post articles without facing government punishment.
Type of Source: this is a website, with no printed version. Traditional Media.
Access: https://www.rferl.org/p/5567.html
Updated: The site is updated daily, the Kazakhstan category is regularly updated.
The country of origin is unclear, the Headquarters are in Washington, US and Prague, Czech Republic. It is published in 25 languages with journalists in 20 different countries. This is all international news that would not be published within certain countries due to free media regulations. This perspective is generally liberal, the Kazakhstan articles are written by Kazakhs that are able to write without censorship. Therefore, it is more like an independent news source. That is a strength, unlike Kazinform, the journalists do not practice active censorship at all times. A weakness is that the journalists can be at risk for publishing anti-Kazakh articles. This source lets Kazakh journalists post whatever they feel is vital for the rest of the world, but I do not know how accessible this source is for Kazakhs.

 

The World Bank Data Catalog (International)

Author: World Bank
Type of Source: Database, website
Access: https://data.worldbank.org/country/kazakhstan
And http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx
Updated: At least once a year, but not regularly updated.
The county of origin is the World Bank Group, it is available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese. Raw data and graphs analyzing said data is available, information from GDP to amount of cell phones used to gender specific education rates are all available. The source is unbiased, it is merely numbers and graphs created by these numbers. This source can help give factual information along with show a comparison to other nations around the world. The weakness of this source is the lack of updates, a lot can change during a year and many of the statistics have holes or missing years. This source is valuable in understanding where Kazakhstan exists in respect to economic significance or childhood education, etc.

 

World Factbook (International)

Author: US CIA
Type of source: Database, website
Access: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.html
Updated: At least once a year, but not regularly updated.
The country of origin is the United States, it is available in English, French, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, and Russian. This source is again a database, but this database gives a lot more information into the government type, geography, and culture of Kazakhstan. This source is unbiased, again it is basing the information on static data rather than dynamic data. The strength of this source is that it is great for background information on the country. The weakness of this source is that it is hard to compare multiple countries at the same time, and some of the stats are from 2015. This source is valuable in understanding why some political or social issue is happening in Kazakhstan.

 

Freedom on the Net (International)

Author: Freedom House
Type of Source: Website / Database
Access: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/kazakhstan
Updated: Articles added regularly, statistics edited yearly
The country of origin is America again, the language is in English. This source posts news articles, and is similar to the databases in the analytical sense, but it is formatted much more like a website and goes into analysis of the data. This source tries to be unbiased with data representation by creating a full methodology that is available for the reader. Rather than taking numbers from my databases and hoping I can fully understand what is being collected and what it represents, this source aids in taking the raw numbers and analyzing to understand especially why finding these sources are so hard. The strength of this source is the analysis of data, the downfall is that the analysis is based on a scoring system they created. But the scoring system is thoroughly explained. The Key Findings on the Freedom House page was also fascinating in relating Kazakhstan to the rest of the world. It connects a global analysis of issues Kazakhstan is facing with freedom, which will relate to other articles I read but will also show how common all of these issues are.

 

US Embassy in Kazakhstan (Official/Government)                                                                        Author:US Consulate Assembly in Almaty.                                                                                                        Type of Source: acts as a traditional media source or new media website, posts news articles about the government but acts as an embassy database with information on US/Kazakhstan relations.         Access: https://kz.usembassy.gov/news-events/                                                                    Updated:Regularly, semi-weekly. No clear schedule on updates.                                                                 The country of origin is the United States/Kazakhstan (in that it’s an US service found in Kazakhstan), the languages are English, Kazakh, and Russian. Information on American citizens working in Kazakhstan is available, as well as current news articles, and Kazakh-American relations. This source is diplomatic, therefore it is fairly unbiased – except when it comes to Russia. Though, it does not cite who writes the news articles, so there might be some variance. The source is great for finding out about what US intervention is occurring in Kazakhstan. The weakness is again the lack of information about who is posting these articles and sometimes does not give full insight on an issue, rather just states the issue. It is interesting to see what is posted on the US Embassy in Kazakhstan in comparison to Kazakhstan Embassy in the US, it emphasizes the westernization that Kazakhstan is trying to accustom itself to.

Kazakhstan Embassy in US (Official/Government)                                                                          Author: Kazakhstan Embassy                                                                                                                              Type of Source: acts as a traditional media source or new media website, posts news articles about the government but acts as an embassy database with information on US/Kazakhstan relations.         Access: https://www.kazakhembus.com/tags/news                                                                                  Updated: Regularly, semi-weekly. No clear schedule on updates.                                                                  The country of origin is Kazakhstan/US (in that it is a Kazakh service found in the US), it is available in English only. Again, this source acts as a website for US relations and gives an overview on the Kazakhstan’s economy and foreign policy. The prospective is Kazakh, diplomatic, and the news articles are based primarily on Kazakhstan’s growth in international affairs – it is very nationalistic and follows the active censorship that many of the other news sources faced. The strength of this source is that it is very eclectic and can give you a lot of understanding on Kazakhstan’s ‘modernization’ goals. It also uses articles from different platforms. The weakness is that it is very nationalistic still, so any government corruption or economic problems have been ignored in the posts. I like this source because it is a collection of other Kazakh source’s articles and it’s a representation of what Kazakhstan wants the world – or the US – to see. It is different from the US embassy from the articles posted, the Kazakh embassy wants to show how great Kazakhstan has been adjusting to modernity.

Kazakhstan Global News Post 6

As I wrote in my Country Report on access to information and cybersecurity, Kazakhstan’s media has faced new amendments that restrict publications against any individual and government documents. The other large event that was addressed in my country Report was the detainment of journalists and seizing of computers and files at Kazakhstan’s Forbes branch and a small new source called Ratel.kz. The buildings were searched and journalists intensively question on April 2nd and 4th.

Ratel.kz cite shut down currently

All of this is due to ‘defamation’ of the past Minister of Finances for the state and his son, most likely embezzlement. Anonmymous sources informed the police that the cites published this knowing-false information, which would go against the amendments set in place. Human Right Watch has protested the questioning and ‘defamation’ of these two independent sources during all of this, suggesting the publications go to court and sue for said ‘defamation’.

Kazakhstan still calls itself a free press nation, this event shows that this is not the case. Government regulation on the press has been increasingly restrictive, as an attempt to crush any public dismay at the current administration.

Source:

RFE/RL. “HRW To Kazakhstan: Stop Using Libel Laws To ‘Harass Journalists’.” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 6 Apr. 2018, www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-hrw-urges-stop-using-libel-laws-to-harass-journalists/29149978.html.

Google Image Result for Http://F.azh.kz/News/051/303/Ratel.jpg, goo.gl/images/npjp13.

Kazakhstan Global News 5

Source: http://kazakh-tv.kz/en/view/blog/page_191560_zhaina-forum-empowers-kazakh-women-to-become-leaders

It is beautiful to see that female activism is a global movement, the Time’s Up Movement has gone beyond American popculture and mediated many other nations’ movements. Kazakhstan had an International Women’s Forum on March 4th based off the female activism movement, the focus was on female entrepreneurship. Ambassadors for Canada and the U.S. spoke on the need for greater safety for women in the work space, including sexual harassment training, and the potential that women serve within the workplace.

Reimagined version of Rosie the Riveter

The most notable speaker in the forum, to me, was Megan Tetrick. The Attache of Culture and Education at the U.S. Embassy in Astana described the inherent power, independence, and intelligence that is a birth right for men, but something women must reach for in a patriarchal society. Female empowerment starts with the removal of competition between females, fighting over the affection of a male or the progression in a career. Women must build each other up, Megan suggests including other female’s feedback or ideas during meetings and promoting the economic gain of fellow female workers. Careers and entrepreneurship is hard to achieve due to gender roles, worldwide but very implicated in Kazakhstan’s culture, suggesting that females may economically progress after all domestic chores are completed. Female-lead companies and companies that are dominated by female workers perform better than other companies according to a spokesperson for the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction, possibly due to the challenges that these women face in atttaining an economic presence.

The article included a vast array of quotes about each speaker’s mode of female empowerment. It is very much different than the other articles I have reviewed, this is a social issue rather than governmental. This issue is something that all countries are facing and shows that no matter the governmental type or economic stability, females are fighting to break out of a second-rate citizen position.

Bibiliography:

Sadykova, Makhabbat. “ZHAINA FORUM EMPOWERS KAZAKH WOMEN TO BECOME LEADERS.” Kazakh-Tv.kz, 7 Mar. 2018, kazakh-tv.kz/en/view/blog/page_191560_zhaina-forum-empowers-kazakh-women-to-become-leaders.

“The Top 6 Conferences for Female Empowerment You Can’t Miss.” Worthy Blog, 2 Nov. 2017, www.worthy.com/blog/worthy-living/the-top-6-conferences-for-female-empowerment-you-cant-miss/.

Kazakhstan Global News Post 2

ICT service exports in Kazakhstan – WorldBank

After reading the Active readings for ICT and the digital gaps around the world, the article “Information Minister holds meetings with counterparts in Almaty” published by Kazinform is very fitting. President Nulsurtan Nazarbayev encouraged a forum meeting with Dauren Abayev, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Information and Communications, and many other Eurasian countries including Belarus and Uzbekistan in an attempt to plan for “digitalization” of all these nations. Within the past year, Nazarbayev has pushed for a movement towards greater tech modernization in Kazakhstan. One method includes changing Kazakh’s Cyrillic alphabet into a Latin alphabet. As Kazinform is state-funded, the article does not imply any negatives of the meeting or reasons for increased attention to the tech industry. Increased use of ICTs will help political communication of these nations – hopefully along with other regions as well – and develop agriculture and entrepreneurship. There are no direct quotes from the meeting nor any analyses by outside sources within the article. Though greater incorporation of ICTs is a good thing and will economically help the populations of this region, Kazakhstan has larger economic problems that may be masked by the amount of news coverage that is based on the government digitalization. Kazinform tagged this article with the keyword ‘Digital Kazakhstan,’ which had 15 articles written within the past 2 weeks on the cite.

Source: “Information Minister Holds Meetings with Counterparts in Almaty.” Kazinform, 3 Feb. 2018, www.inform.kz/en/information-minister-holds-meetings-with-counterparts-in-almaty_a3141995.

Media Source: “Kazakhstan – ICT Service Exports (% of Service Exports, BoP).” ICT Service Exports (% of Service Exports – BoP) in Kazakhstan, tradingeconomics.com/kazakhstan/ict-service-exports-percent-of-service-exports-bop-wb-data.html.

Global News Post – Kazakhstan and ‘Latinization’

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 2011

Kazakh President Nazarbayev has announced a national shift away from the Cyrillic writing system, towards a Latin writing system. The implementation was announced in April of 2017 and expected to start by the new year of 2018, with an end goal of full translation by 2025. The transition is meant to be a movement towards modernization, not a political seperation from Russia – though not all Kazakh characters can be properly translated into Latin characters. The characters that are not available will be marked with an apostrophe, which will make hashtags unviable in many uses.

The education is expected to heavily impact the already slim government funds during an ‘economic slowdown.’ A sum of 3.4 billion dollars has been given to failing National Banks, the GDP of Kazakhstan has been decreasing since 2012 and was at 137 billion for the 2016 year according to World Bank. Citizen opinions  are mixed, though this will help foreigners learn Kazakh and possibly help Kazakhs learn the Linga Franca. The possible ramifications are the government expenses; Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh banker, believes the rapid change may be an attempt to hide larger government issues. Countries such as Korea and China have not needed to give up their alphabet in order to become successful, economically and socially within the 21st century.

Supplemental Works:     “Kazakhstan’s Great Alphabetical Distraction · Global Voices.” Global Voices, 18 Apr. 2017, globalvoices.org/2017/04/18/kazakhstans-great-alphabetical-distraction/.

Higgins, Andrew. “Kazakhstan Cheers New Alphabet, Except for All Those Apostrophes.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/world/asia/kazakhstan-alphabet-nursultan-nazarbayev.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FKazakhstan&action=click&contentCollection=world®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection.

“GDP (Current US$).” GDP (Current US$) | Data, data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=KZ.

Photo Source:       Norman, Joshua. “The world’s enduring dictators: Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 19 June 2011, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-worlds-enduring-dictators-nursultan-a-nazarbayev-kazakhstan-19-06-2011/.