H. E. Nursultan Nazarbayev
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Office of the President
11 Mira Street
Astana 473000
Kazakhstan

Fax: +7 3172 323 073

Vienna, 4 February 2004

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, is deeply concerned about the beating of Svetlana Rychkova, a journalist with the opposition daily, Assandi Times, on 30 January.

According to IPI’s information, Svetlana Rychkova was dragged out of her car by policemen, detained, threatened and subsequently beaten. She was interrogated for several hours at a police station in the town of Talgar, 40 kilometres north of the former capital, Almaty. Two of her friends who were travelling with Rychkova at the time were also taken to the police station.

Three days prior to her arrest, on 27 January, Rychkova had been called into the police department and asked to become an informant for the police on the reporting activities of the Assandi Times. Rychkova refused the request of the police.

The assault on Rychkova is not the first on a journalist in Kazakhstan this year. Unknown assailants in Astana beat Zhuldyz Toleuova, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on the night of 9 January, and stole her bag and Dictaphone. While Toleuova’s colleagues believe the attack was connected to her journalism, police said the incident was a robbery.

This is not the first attack on the Assandi Times. The newspaper has written about alleged government corruption, politics and the rights of the mass media. As a result, it has been under heavy pressure from the government.

With regard to the above, the violent behaviour of the police is a clear indication that the authorities are not only intent on spying on the media, but are willing to assault and intimidate journalists when they refuse to assist the police in this activity.

IPI urges Your Excellency to authorise an immediate and thorough investigation into this latest incident and to do everything in your power to create a media environment that allows journalists to exercise their profession free of harassment and violence.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director