Blogger activity proposed to be legalized in Kazakhstan

It is necessary to legalize the activities of bloggers in Kazakhstan and make appropriate amendments to the law ‘On mass media’. Such an opinion was voiced by the Chairperson of the Journalists’ Club of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan Adeliya Tukhbatova at the meeting entitled "Open information space: the demands of society and trends in the development of the media sphere" held in the capital. Presently, the activities of bloggers and the blogosphere in general are not regulated by law.

“Bloggers are opinion leaders at their core and have an audience of two to three million followers who listen to what they say and do. However, sometimes these words and actions are of illegal or some kind of ambiguous nature, but not all people are information savvy. And they can get lost in all this information. In his recent address, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that reforms are expected, including in media laws. So I think we need to amend the blogosphere part, because it’s not really regulated by law in our country,” said Adeliya Tukhbatova, Chairperson of the Journalists’ Club, Kazakhstan’s Ethnic Assembly.

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Editing by Saule Mukhamejanova