The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemns recent two incidents of violence and obstruction targeting media professionals in Kazakhstan. SEEMO calls upon authorities to promptly investigate these attacks and ensure the safety and freedom of journalists in the country.
In the first case, on 18 August 2023, journalist Diana Saparkyzy (ДианаСапарқызы) from KazTAGnews agency (КазТАГ)Казахскоетелеграфноеагентство (https://kaztag.kz/ru/) was attacked during her visit to a mine after a fire accident and deaths of five workers one day earlier.
One additional incident occurred on 22 August 2023 in the afternoon. Radio Azattyk (Радио Азаттык) (https://rus.azattyk.org/) reporter Sania Toiken (СанияТойкен) and cameraperson Yerzhan Amirkhanov (Ержан Әмірханов) were stopped by local police and questioned about the purpose of their visit in Aktau. Later a drone they used for taking a video was destroyed by a car. After initially fleeing the scene, the car driver returned with a lawyer, refusing to compensate for the destruction.
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is a regional non-governmental, non-profit network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in Southeast, South, East and Central Europe. SEEMO members are in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova (with the territory of Transdnestria), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye / Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Austria, Italy, Vatican and San Marino have a special status in SEEMO. SEEMO has over 3000 individual members, and additional media as corporate members.
#fyp #mediafreedom #seemo #freespeech #southeasteuropemediaorganisation#ngo #journalist #journalistunderattack #kazakhstan #KazTAG #RadioAzattyk #DianaSaparkyzy #SaniaToiken #YerzhanAmirkhanov #journalistattacked #journalistassault#SEEMO #pressfreedom #mediafreedom #freemedia @Sonitab