January 25th, 2012
Igor Vinyavsky, editor of the Almaty-based independent weekly Vzglyad, was
detained on Monday evening in an ongoing crackdown by
Kazakhstan‘s National Security Committee (KNB) on critical media and opposition activists. Two groups of KNB agents simultaneously raided Vinyavsky’s apartment and Vzglyad’s offices, confiscating all reporting equipment. Vinyavsky was detained following the newsroom raid. The crackdown has also involved a raid on independent broadcaster Stan TV.
April 20th, 2010
Microsoft has
denied claims that its staff were involved in the silencing of internet television station Stan TV, which was
raided by police on April 1. Initial reports claimed the police were accompanied by
a Microsoft representative, who came armed with an order from Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General’s office authorising him to seal the station’s equipment. The order alleged that Stan Media LLC was using pirated Microsoft software.
The use of anti-piracy legislation by local law enforcement agencies to legitimise harassment of the independent media is becoming more frequent in ex-Soviet republics,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In November 2007, the Samara edition of award-winning Russian newspaper
Novaya Gazeta was effectively shut down due to accusations that the company was using unlicensed Microsoft software. In 2008,
Vyatsky Nablyudatel was subject of similar allegations, but took the decision to move over to open-source software to beat the regulations, as
its editor reported in
Index on Censorship magazine at the time.
