There’s something about Kazakhstan

Michael Hedges September 6, 2007

Russian/Swedish television giant CTC Media reached into Kazakhstan for its latest venture. The investment, said company CEO Alexander Rodnyansky, is “an attractive opportunity.”

For $65 million (€47.6 million) cash CTC Media will acquire 20% of the company holding Channel 31’s broadcast license and majorities in companies that provide programming and ad sales. CTC Media is the world’s leader in Russian language television programming. CTC Media’s largest shareholder (39.6%) is the Swedish media conglomerate Modern Times Group (MTG).

Channel 31 is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital, and is principally owned by Armanjan Baitasov. Several years ago Mr. Baitasov favored media regulation to limit the amount of Russian language radio and television and cutting the amount of re-broadcasting of foreign channels. He is widely viewed as a supporter of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. CTC Media – and certainly MTG – are noted for television entertainment rather than television news.

President Nazarbayev is the only leader post-Soviet Kazakhstan has known and his influence on Kazakh media, as with all of Kazakh life, is close and personal. His government has routinely opened and closed radio and television stations and newspapers.

General elections for the lower house of Parliament held in August were a test for Kazakhstan. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) sent its election monitors and reported “progress” in the elections’ administration. And Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party won significant majorities: 98 out of 100 seats. Indeed, Kazakhstan has come full-circle among post-Soviet States: it’s a one-party State again.

OSCE and PACE are major human and media rights advocates. OSCE chairmanship rotates among member States, of which Kazakhstan is one. President Nazarbayev, clearly aware of the public relations benefit, wants Kazakhstan seated as OSCE chairman in 2009. Members will vote in November.

Other media watchers have been far less generous and are certainly not pleased with the idea of Nazarbayev heading OSCE. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) rounded on the election coverage as “biased and heavily influenced by the authorities.”

OSCE’s preliminary report noted “preferential treatment of the governing Nur Otan party in the State media, a case of censorship of an opposition party’s free space in a State newspaper, and a decision to prevent airing some of the same party’s campaign spots on television.” Channel 31’s election coverage, according to the OSCE report, was “more balanced.”

A significant portion of Kazahk media is or has been owned, operated or controlled by President Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva and her now ex-husband Rakhat Aliyev. This melodrama has captivated Kazakhstan watchers for months.

Mr. Aliyev is now on the outs with President Nazarbayev and on the run after being fired as Kazakh Ambassador to Austria. He was arrested on an international warrant for abduction, assault and money laundering but released on bail after an Austrian court decided he would not receive a fair trial in Kazakhstan. One of Mr. Aluyev’s crimes was criticizing President Nazarbayeva. Another was suggesting his own president aspirations. Another was upsetting Ms Nazarbayeva, from whom he is now divorced. Still, President Nazarbayev wants his hide.

In mid August the weekly tabloid Karavan, owned by Mr. Aliyev’s holding company Alma-Media, was forced to close. A new newspaper company took the name, office space and 800 employees under the management of President Nazarbayev’s former press secretary Zhanay Omarov. Television channel Kommerchesky Telekanal (KTK) was taken away from Mr. Aliyev in June and given to yet another former presidential spokesperson, Arman Shurayev.

Last week another Nazarbayev son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, was sacked from an oil ministry job. Clearly the worst job in Kazakhstan is presidential son-in-law and the best is former press spokesman.

During the height of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Borat’ popularity – and its unpopularity with Kazakh officials – Ms Nazarbayeva suggested that Kazakh’s lighten up: "We should not be afraid of humor and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think.” It was during last years’ Borat craze that Channel 31 sent a team to America, to Columbus, Ohio, right in the heartland, to report on local elections. Somebody has a sense of humor, or irony.

But a TV deal in Kazakhstan is still a TV deal. Channel 31 is one of several channels -  not the biggest, not the smallest – in the oil-rich country of 15 million people and a land-mass the size of Western Europe. Mr. Rodnyansky, in his statement, said the country produces about $200 million (€146 million) in television advertising. It’s possible…but impossible to verify. Per capita income has tripled since 2000. Advertising is almost entirely from State-owned or controlled enterprises.

And TV audiences in Kazakhstan are measured with the latest technology. TNS and Arbitron introduced the Portable People Meter (PPM) to Kazakhstan this year.

CTC Media also announced it had registered a new television company in Uzbekistan.

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