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Interview with Kazis Toguzbayev, Journalist/Blogger from Kazakhstan

Leila Tanayeva · 20:13

Kazis Toguzbayev is a Kazakhstani journalist/blogger, who was sued for insulting the honor and the dignity of the president in January 2007 when he uploaded two articles on a group blog KUB.kz. Kazis is 59, married and has grandchildren. He is a colonel of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan in reserve and a pensioner for 10 years now. We spoke about the lessons that he learned after the trial and about the citizen journalism in Kazakhstan.

Q: What is blog and citizen journalism for you?
A: It’s a possibility of free self-realization.

Q: Why did you decide to write the articles, which, as you might have known, will get you in trouble?
A: In this case not my mind, but my feelings lead me. I would not have been able to exist if I did not write and upload these articles. Not writing them would be worse than being punished for it. In other words, I could not have been silent.

Q: What topics are you most interested in, how do you choose what to write about?
A: I quite like philosophical topics, like the religions and issues of ethnicity. Unfortunately, the Kazakhstani publications do not yet accept the conceptual and reasonable discussion on these topics. In my case I could say that my topics have chosen me. Because I have soul as well, and it cannot accept and not answer to what is going on. I personally felt that when Altynbek Sarsenbayev (Kazakhstani opposition politician) was murdered and when the authorities tried to hide the truth about his murder, I was being murdered too. I felt like I was being killed too – though I am alive, I felt like I was being buried alive.

Q: Do you think your case has helped to attract the attention to the freedom of speech in Kazakhstan?
A: I didn’t have this purpose, but it happened. I found more than 160 thousand (!) documents with my name in the Internet. I wouldn’t have been able to organize such an promotion if I wanted to! Most publications were about the persecution for what I have written. The tone was sympathizing, so I concluded that I managed to attract the attention to the state of freedom of speech in Kazakhstan. Besides, the OSCE has addressed the minister of foreign affairs in Kazakhstan Marat Tazhin. It said that the norm of the law, which envisages the criminal punishment for an assault on honor and dignity of the president was an anachronism. The US State Department also included my case into its annual report on human rights.

Q: Did local and international NGOs and civic initiatives help you during your trial?
A: Yes! The international fund for freedom of speech “Adil Soz” found the means to pay for a professional lawyer who defended me. I wouldn’t simply have such means! Besides, the president of this fund Tamara Kaleeva was one of my public defenders during the trial. Other public defenders were the president of the foundation “Journalists at risk” Rozlana Taukina, Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, leader of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, a party that is not registered. Our justice system depends on the executive, so my professional lawyer could do almost nothing. Thus, despite all the legal arguments from my defense, I could not have escaped the conviction. I think that the public defenders have done the most.

Q: What lessons have you learned from this case, have you changed your opinion about the state bodies, the courts, the possibilities of the Internet, the Kazakhstani community of journalists?
A: Lesson number one – you have to be careful about what you write if you want to escape the punishment by the repressive state bodies. Lesson number two – if you cannot help writing, you have to write, despite the threat of the punishment, even a criminal one. As for the state bodies, they are the same as they used to be in our totalitarian past: the Committee of National Security, prosecutor’s office, and, as I understand, the administration of the president do the monitoring of the press (do an ideological surveillance), the prosecutor and the courts finish what the other start. I am confident that my case was not only political, but also ideological. During the trial the prosecutor and the judge were asking questions, but could not listen to my answers. They asked: “What (criminal) intentions did you have when you wrote your articles?”. I answered that my main motive was that I don’t accept the immoral behavior of the president Nazarbayev, and I was trying to prove that he was immoral. The prosecutor and the judge seemed like they did not want to hear, but they could not stop me from talking.

As for the journalists, I myself was the main provider of the information about my trial. For instance, the “Svoboda Slova” (Freedom of Speech) newspaper didn’t say anything about my trial. On the other hand, the foundation for the protection of freedom of speech “Adil Soz”, the “Journalists at Risk” fund, “Respublika” newspaper and TV “31 channel” have done a lot to highlight my trial.

Q: What is the state of the citizen journalism in Kazakhstan? Are there many people, non-professional journalists ready to write in the Internet about political and social issues?
A: Yes, surprisingly, there are many people like that. However, they are not yet ready to do it for a simple reason – the lack of the skills to work in the Internet, especially, to work with blogs. The existing Internet media are a barrier for them as much as print media.

Q: What do you think is the future of the Internet, blogs and citizen media in Kazakhstan? Will there be more trials of the journalists, will there be legislative restrictions, censorship as in China or the atmosphere will be freer and there will be more people active online as in Russia?
A: For instance, KUB.kz (political blog, where Kazis published) is administered from Paris. It saves it from the persecution by the Kazakhstani authorities. But I think that the number of blogs will grow in Kazakhstan anyway. The number of persecuted journalists will grow as well. The current policies on nationalities can lead to another huge outflow of Russian-speaking population from Kazakhstan. Forced transfer of bookkeeping to Kazakh can negatively affect the number of active and free journalists. So it is difficult to say exactly what scenario will Kazakhstan follow the Chinese or the Russian.

Q: How did your family react to the process?
A: I always did what I wanted to do. I feel the most free in political journalism. My family was worried for me at the start. But they got used to my activities with years. And they even learned to look at the social processes as I do. That is why none of my relatives panicked when the KNB (Committee for National Security) started two criminal cases against me. Moreover, my wife told me when I was going to the court: “Victory or defeat! I am not going to the trial. This is not my problem. Not even yours! The government has created this problem. They should sort it out now”. At the same time, she packed my bag with warm clothes and biscuits.

Q: How do you imagine the future of the Internet in Kazakhstan?
A: Free! Kazakhs in the 21 century have a chance to get themselves out of this slump through the Internet. The flat, evolutionary way of growth in the economy and population will not solve the problem of Kazakhstani – not only Kazakh – society. We need a qualitative move forward. And the Internet provides this historical chance for Kazakhstanis, which we should use for sure.

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Taiwan: Bloggers' Further Action on Saving Losheng Sanatorium

Pipper Lee · 17:32

lingua → zht · zhs

As mentioned in the previous post, discussions and actions on saving Lo-Sheng Sanatorium have widely spread in Taiwan blogosphere. Now the whole event has also attracted attention from mainstream media, the public, and politicians.

Bloggers' actions:

In addition to discussions and collaboration over their blogs, several bloggers decided to take actions in the real world.

(more…)

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Morocco: Bloggers talk about the soul of Morocco and recent bombings

Jillian York · 13:26

lingua → zht · zhs

Thanks to a New York Times article entitled “The Soul of Morocco”, the Moroccan blogosphere is busy debating the truth in this statement. Fez, a city of approximately 1 million, is known as Morocco's most refined city. As the home of the Qarouyine University, one of the world's oldest and prestigious, its reputation is not unearned.

However, in a country with such a rapidly changing and growing economy, many of Fez's residents have been left behind.

“Right now, today, in 2007, Fez is also a ghetto in every sense of the word and most of its inhabitants are barely eking out a miserable subsistence living,” says Everything Morocco, a foreigner living in the ancient Fez medina (town).

The Morocco Report's taamarbuuta questions the authenticity of Fez, saying “Fez may look like a jewel in an abyss of globalisation, but where is the authenticity in these tourist-pouncing Fassis?” (April 9, 2007, “The soul of Morocco?” to which The View from Fez rebuts with a post entitled “Fez versus Meknes - ‘tourist -pouncing Fassis?‘” and challenging local readers to visit Fez.

Liosliath, of the blog Morocco Time, takes issue with Fez being named the country's soul, saying “There’s still a lot of ‘authentic' Morocco to be found outside the main tourist areas.”

Also on the lips of Moroccan bloggers are the recent suicide bombings in Casablanca. After one man, Abdelfattah Raydi, blew himself up in a Casablanca internet cafe, the police went after his compatriots and on Tuesday, were close to catching several when one detonated a bomb underneath his clothing. Police shot another, and a third (who turned out to be Raydi's brother, Ayyoub) detonated a bomb, killing himself and a policeman, and injuring several, including a young boy. On Saturday morning, two more men blew themselves up on Blvd. Moulay Youssef in Casablanca, where the American Consulate is located.

‘Aqoul blogger Lounsbury commends Mohammed Faiz, the owner of the internet cafe where Abdelfattah Raydi first detonated his bomb (and whose cafe is know wreckage, leaving his already poor family even more destitute), requesting that anyone with ideas contact him to facilitate a fund for Faiz and his family.

Moroccan blogger Big World Learner exclaims, “Blood, terror, mutilated bodies, young people blowing themselves up in public places!! It’s always difficult to believe that these things are happening in our country!” (April 12, 2007, “Misleading terror“)

Bo18, a blogger of the Moroccan diaspora asks concisely, “No seriously, its getting a bit out of hand. Don't you think as well?”

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Lebanon: Remembering the Civil War

Moussa Bashir · 12:11

lingua → zht · zhs · zhs

April 13, 1975 is officially the date when the Lebanese civil war began. It lasted for 15 years and it officially ended in 1990 after the Taif agreement. More than 150,000 died and hundreds of thousands were injured or displaced. Almost every Lebanese was affected in one way or another. Local groups and organizations commemorate this date with activities that remind everyone of the catastrophe of war with the hope that such activities will prevent its repetition. These activities may be of great significance today since the tensions and bickering among Lebanese political groups are reaching heights similar to those reached in the pre-civil war years during the seventies.

Following is a selection of some blog post that mentioned and discussed this topic.

In this post, Blacksmith Jade mentions an interview with three current leaders who were also militia leaders during the civil war. The paper interviewed them about their regrets and/or apologies for their actions during the war. Besides the defensive tone in their replies, their answers are interesting and may give a clue of what to expect in the near future.

Sietske In Beiroet mentions and posts one of the leaflets dropped over Beirut by a group calling themselves “Lebanese Women for Civil Peace”. The leaflets call on the women to play a role to stop the re-emergence of violence. She also points out the name that Lebanese give to the civil war:

The Lebanese, when talking in Arabic, refer to it as ‘the events’. That phrase ‘civil war’ was coined by the west. There might be war in one part of town, but in the other part of town life went on as usual.

In this article, which discusses some of the reasons that cause civil wars, Courtney C. Radsch discusses the Lebanese civil war and calls on the leaders to work on preventing another one from taking place:

Today, Friday the 13th, marks the 32nd anniversary of the beginning of Lebanon's bloody civil war, the day that sealed its future not as the Paris of the Middle East but as the war-torn emblem of sectarian violence and destruction. Today should be a day for the politicians in Washington as well as Lebanon to reflect on the causes and effects of the civil war and to try to learn from history in order to prevent another war from breaking out in the currently tense political environment as well as keeping the civil war in Iraq from lasting as long as Lebanon's.

Skylark posts a poem (Ar) in which he admonishes people to think hard before taking up arms. He also posts pictures of Beirut during the civil war with links to where more pictures may be found.

M Barbay posts a 14 minutes video which claims to capture the past 30 years of Lebanese history with the aim of finding a way to end the template of random repeats of wars.

And here is a different perspective on the war from Angry Anarchist. After pointing out that

On the 32nd anniversary of the eruption of the civil war, virtually all the war criminals, all the fighters, all the butchers, are on the loose. And what is worse, many of them preside over political parties, and hold political office.

She goes on to state that

The mythology of the civil war needs to be destroyed. Not dismantled, but destroyed. There are those who insist, despite what experience has shown, that pampering will lead to the dismantlement of this mythology. That merely “encouraging” people to discuss the civil war is enough to actually get them to do it, and do it in a way that would be more than merely parroting the official version approved by the sect's self-appointed leader(s).

Finally MFL writes an article which he describes as a summary of a summary of some factors that lead to the breaking out of a civil war, including the Lebanese civil war or the “events” as some in Lebanon like to call them.

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Kuwait: Bloggers' Show Aired Following Protests

Abdullatif AlOmar · 12:07

Popular Kuwaiti television show Al Diwaniya is being aired again - following protests from some of Kuwait's bloggers.
The show, which was expected to feature interviews with some bloggers in one of its episodes was taken off the air, sparking speculations and rumours as to why it was pulled off.

Q over at Kuwaitism notes the development here.

أمس و اليوم أكثر من شخص قاللي أنه شاف دعاية البرنامج و أن سيبث هذا الإسبوع يوم الأثنين
مع كل احترامي للجهود و للبرنامج نفسه لكن البرنامج جديد و جمهوره جدا محدود مع أنه يقدم مستوى و مواضيع ممتازة
كان قرار منع البرنامج اللي أتى بوقت الوزير السابق قرار غبي .. أو ساذج لأكون أكثر دقة. أتوقع عدد المشاهدين الحلقة القادمة أكثر من أي وقت مضى بسبب القرار و الحملة الإعلامية اللي أتت مع القرار … و الأهم أن المشاهدين سيزيدون بالحلقة اللي كانوا يريدون منعها خوفا من أن تكثر شعبية و قراء المدونات
قرارات غير مدروسة هذي نتيجتها

“Yesterday and today more than one person told me that he saw the advertisement for the program and it will air this Monday. With all respect to the efforts and the program, it is new and has a small viewer base although it has great quality and topics. The decision to stop the program by the ex-minster was stupid.. or naive to be more precise and I expect the number of viewers of the next episode to exceed any previous figures because of that decision and the public outrage that came with it. The most important aspect is that the number of viewers will increase for the episode which they wanted to block because of fears of making blogging and those reading blogs more popular. This is what you get with no planning,” he writes.

Bo6ager uploaded the episode but for some reason Google removed it.

“Your video was rejected because it
didn't comply with our Program Policies,” was the message he got.

Qaiss over at io81 went to a visit to Failaka Island and took some pictures there. Among them is the photograph you see above.

“The reason for not posting the past day, was my visit to Failaka Island. I’ve been there a long time ago (1999), but my friends say it has changed and so we went,(in between the storms). It's a nice place “not wow” just nice, you can think of it as changing scenarios from the busy, crowded Kuwait to a quite place having old Kuwaiti tea,” he explains.

Meanwhile, Zaydoun with a few more bloggers are promoting the launch of the new campaign which calls for protecting the Kuwaiti Constitution following talks about amending parts of it to limit the limited freedom it currently provides.

دستورنا المهمش، المغلوب على أمره، يتعرض لإنتهاكات منذ زمن طويل حتى أصبحت هذه الإنتهاكات أمراً عادياً لغالبية الشعب الكويتي الذي لا حول ولا قوة له، والذي لا يعرف شيئاً عن الدستور ومواده التي تكفل له حقوقه وما تبقى من حرياته
وكأنه لم يكفي المنتهكين ما اقترفوه بحق الدستور، فهم لا يلجأون إليه إلا في وقت الحاجة ليخلصهم من المآزق التي يضعون أنفسهم فيها، ثم يتنكرون له وينسون الجميل… والآن يلوحون باحتمال تعطيله وإيقافه عن العمل بمواده، ليحال إلى التقاعد
هل يجوز السكوت عن ما يحدث؟ طبعاً لا

“Our marginalized constitution has been subjected to violations for a long time, which have now become the norm for the majority of Kuwaitis, who are helpless and don't know much about the constitution and the clauses which guarantee their rights and whatever is left of their liberties. Trespassing on the constitution is not enough for the violators, who only refer to it when they get themselves into trouble and need to rescue themselves. Otherwise, they forget the favour and are now even threatening to suspend and stop using the constitution, which is being out on retirement. Is it right to keep quiet after all that has happened? Of course not!,” he explains.

Away from the constitution, Scottish Expat boojam shares with us his experience with Kuwaiti bureaucracy.

“Every year in April, I have to take my car to Jabriya Vehicle Testing Station for its annual ‘test' and re-registration. Its approach makes me uncomfortable, edgy. In UK we have to do the same, the MOT test, which the car has to pass in order to remain on the road. If it fails any one of the forty or so checks, then it must be re-presented, once the problem has been attended to. It's a pain, but at least you know where you stand. And you can be pretty sure that the test is done correctly. In Kuwait, it is not quite the same,” he complains.

And finally chillnite witnessed and photographed the dust storm that hit Kuwait on April 11.

“Look what happened to Kuwait City on April 11th, 2007 at 11am ~~in afternoon~~ when a mega sandstorm hit it. Now that's what I call Mars Attacks!” he writes.

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