Defense Dysfunction
M.V. ZakharovaJanuary 08, 2022
In the great mosaic of events taking place in Kazakhstan, there is one detail that is particularly noteworthy to me. It is the off-scale level of aggression on the part of rioters against journalists and media working there. Reports of attacks on media workers and pogroms in editorial offices come in the form of frontline reports. It is telling that the attacks are clearly deliberate. Obviously, in order to make access to an objective picture of the "purely peaceful protest" that is taking place as difficult as possible. And also to intimidate journalists, and shut them out of active news coverage.
Here are just a few examples. On January 5, in Alma-Ata, a group of unknown people attacked the office of Kazakhstan branch of Mir TV and Radio Company, which, let me remind you, has interstate status and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
The details of the raid are truly shocking. There were about 500 criminals. They were armed with axes, and had an autogen with them. Everyone knows that peaceful demonstrators always bring autogens, Molotov cocktails and axes. These people knew where they were going and were definitely not peaceful.
First, they cut down the bars on the windows. They smashed everything in their way: they removed the radiators (so they could not work in the cold rooms), destroyed the workplaces, literally shredded them to pieces, and destroyed the satellite control room and all the television equipment. A curious detail: the criminals were carrying trunk radios, obviously aware that the connection could be cut off. The conclusion is inescapable: the attackers worked according to plan, they were well prepared and acted in an organized way.
There are other details. The burglars had damaged the heating system: all the premises, including the equipment rooms, were flooded with water. The studio and editing stations were damaged. Later the editorial office was set on fire - everything was burnt out. Nothing was left of the Mir International TV and Radio Company's office in Alma-Ata. Along the way, the offices of the Kazakhstan, Khabar, Eurasia, KTK and Sputnik Kazakhstan news agencies were virtually destroyed. At the time of the attack on the editorial office, employees of the Mir television channel were in the office: journalists, producers, cameramen, and engineers. For some time, they were blocked in the building. With some difficulty they were evacuated. Everyone is alive and well.
The correspondent of "Sputnik" was a bit less lucky. The protesters held him for an hour until he managed to escape. An employee of Kazakhstan TV channel was also hurt by the rioters.
And here is the most interesting part. Neither the OSCE, nor any international human rights organization even asked about the fate of Mira and other journalists, let alone about any real help. No one even thought to comment on this caveman vandalism. The very next day, in the evening of January 6, a camera crew from the Almaty television channel, which was on its way to the city administration to film a video message from the head of the city, B. Sagintaev, came under fire in the center of Almaty. As a result, the driver M. Bazarbaev was killed and the cameraman was injured.
In short, we have an outrageous situation with violations of journalists' rights and numerous infringements on their health and lives and the creation of obstacles to the performance of their professional duty to report on socially significant events during a crisis.
Where is the intelligible response from international human rights institutions? Where is the adequate assessment of the OSCE, especially of its Representative on Freedom of the Media? Ms. T. Ribeiro published two whole tweets. One of them condemns the gun attack on the son of A. Batyrbekov, the editor of the Saryagash info newspaper. Another one expresses condolences to the family of the mentioned murdered employee of the Almaty TV channel. Not a single word about the killers' responsibility.
Is this all? All that could be seen from Vienna? All that seemed to be worthy of reaction? Is this what a balanced and proportional assessment, as our Western partners like to say, of the scale of the violations by an international official authorized to do so, should look like?
Do you think anyone from the office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media called the Mir broadcasting company? From Vienna, from the Organization's office in Nur-Sultan? No, of course not. But if one were to call, for example, the chairman of MTRK Mir, R. Batyrshin, one would learn a lot of interesting things. And shocking.
Do we understand it correctly: for Mrs. Ribeiro to pay for the tweet, the journalist has to die? It begs the question, why do we, the member countries of the Organization, including Kazakhstan, allocate millions of dollars to the OSCE budget, including for the "protection of freedom of speech and journalists", if this organization does nothing of the kind at a critical moment for journalists in Kazakhstan?
It is not just a question of money. States have entrusted such institutions as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media with the right to make objective and impartial assessments of the state of affairs in a supervised and
on GETTR: BREAKING: Kazakhstan has arrested their former head of intelligence for treason For reference, here is a photo of him with Joe and Hunter Biden
