This is the transcript of my interview with an independent journalist in Kazakhstan.\u00c2\u00a0 He was commiserating with me about my hospital stay, and mentioned that he too, had suffered because of his political beliefs.\u00c2\u00a0 I grabbed my little camera, and asked him to describe what happened to him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You want to know about hospital. What happened. For me it happened because we have this public association here of professionals. And our organization, they try to take away from us.<\/p>\n
Apparently, it was authorities and in that particular case, you know, there, some guys show up and they just start beating. You know. Just like this. But my friends also have been beaten many times, like (DELETED) and others. Going home at night, and somebody suddenly attacks.<\/p>\n
So. It happens, you know? From time to time.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say deliberately, but it happens, nobody knows why.<\/p>\n
When you go home at night or (DELETED-a place where journalists gather to escape the secret police) these journalists, when they write articles, they are also harassed or attacked.<\/p>\n
Attacks, they do it like two times. Like once in a while.<\/p>\n
But harassment, it is always taking place.<\/p>\n
Through relatives, for example. (DELETED)<\/p>\n
When you demand the rights are being \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s justice.<\/p>\n
Then they try to intimidate you.<\/p>\n
You receive a call from national security \u00e2\u20ac\u201c apparently.<\/p>\n
But you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know in reality, whether they are or not.<\/p>\n
And they tell you you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be engaging in politics<\/p>\n
You shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be supporting this movement<\/p>\n
You shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go there for this action, like FlashMobs or protest actions<\/p>\n
They try to pin you down, from like, very brutal threats<\/p>\n
Through your relatives. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what stops people from participation.<\/p>\n
From political actions, and defending their own rights.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s free. You can get together and talk about it.<\/p>\n
But once you try to do something about it, they get together to impede you.<\/p>\n
For example, when we launched our website (DELETED)<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been already attacked by Denial of Service and many other things.<\/p>\n
One of our activists after that was also beaten<\/p>\n
And we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether it was because he was with us<\/p>\n
Or because it just happened,<\/p>\n
But in any case, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not good<\/p>\n
They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t steal people, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to take you away<\/p>\n
They try to put you away through the legal system, which is now restrictive in manner<\/p>\n
Once you participate (DELETED names of journalists) are now facing 50 days in jail for just rallying to support Yevgeny Shoftis, whose trial, appeal trial is going on right now<\/p>\n
So there are many different instances all over the country of these things<\/p>\n
There is certain line that everyone feels here<\/p>\n
Because they created the fear among us.<\/p>\n
We know that we shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be participating in protest actions<\/p>\n
Once we do it, we know we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get in trouble<\/p>\n
So we try to organize these FlashMobs, which nobody knows where we gather<\/p>\n
And we try to do it, film it, and put on the web<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how we try to escape the persecution<\/p>\n
But once it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s officially announced<\/p>\n
If you go there and protest, say something against<\/p>\n
-for example, this restrictive law \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n
Then you might face a problem with\u00c2\u00a0 fine. First-<\/p>\n
They will fine you. If you go a second time, you can face jail for 15 days<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the maximum they can give you in this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beatings, midnight phone calls and a culture of fear This is the transcript of my interview with an independent journalist in Kazakhstan.\u00c2\u00a0 He was commiserating with me about my hospital stay, and mentioned that he too, had suffered because of his political beliefs.\u00c2\u00a0 I grabbed my little camera, and asked him to describe what happened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[292,290,261,274,1],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ddos","tag-internet-freedom","tag-journalist","tag-kazakhstan","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}