The organization “Reporters without Borders” has placed Kazakhstan 154th in the world in terms of media freedom.
The organization Freedom House has placed Kazakhstan 182nd (our of 196) in the world in terms of freedom of speech.
During the presidential election campaign in April 2011 (Nazarbayev received 95.5% of votes) many web pages were temporarily blocked,
including the Free Europe radio, BBc and Independent Television K+.
Extreme oppression was directed towards independent media, in particular: the video portal Stan TV, the satellite channel: K+, the news agency namystan and daily newspapers: Respublika and Vzglyad. These were the only media organisations which, having broken the information blockade, imposed by the government, published information regarding the strike in Zhanaozen. Ultimately, in December 2012 they were accused of “information terrorism”, declared extremist and banned.
