This is an interesting one from Kazakhstan. The Government in Kazakhstan has officially committed to the principles of freedom of speech, but according to opposition parties, implementation of those principles during the campaigns running up to August 18th elections has been less than forthcoming.

According to the law, each party has equal rights to airtime and other media space during campaigning, to ensure that everyone has a chance to get their message out. However, the opposition Social Democratic Party claimed on July 24th that up to four television channels have denied it airtime to broadcast its campaign videos.

Senior SDP member Amirzhan Qosanov says authorities want to stifle images that highlight the large gap between rich and poor: ‘In our videos, we wanted to show a sharp contrast between the fabulously rich and the very poor, who have only water and bread,[the authorities] understood that it would be an ’information bomb.’.

So what to do if you feel your authorities are stifling your chances of campaigning on national television? Turn to the internet of course, and that’s what the KSDP has done – by posting their campaign videos on the web. Nice move, but in a country where internet penetration is around the 3% mark, I’m not sure it’s going to make even a small difference.

Source: EurasiaNet article (http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp072907.shtml)

Labels: Kazakhstan, Social Democratic Party, US elections