Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan ranked 149th of 180 countries and territories in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 34.41, falling eight positions from 141st and 39.34 in 2025. Reporters Without Borders describes the Kazakh media landscape as overwhelmingly shaped by regime propaganda, with only a handful of independent outlets remaining.

The legal framework tightened over the review period. A new Law on Mass Media signed on 19 June 2024, with its main provisions in force from 20 August 2024, superseded the previous laws on mass media and on television and radio broadcasting. It defines online publications as mass media subject to registration, allows registration to be refused to foreign television and radio channels whose material is deemed to contain extremist propaganda, prohibits foreign media representatives from working without accreditation and expands state monitoring of media content against national, cultural and family values. A further reform in force from 1 January 2025 enables the foreign ministry to deny accreditation on broadly defined national security grounds. Amendments banning what the legislation terms propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation were signed into law on 30 December 2025 and entered into force on 2 March 2026. Defamation has been decriminalised, but knowingly spreading false information has not, and the confidentiality of sources can be lifted by a simple court decision.

State Media Monitor maps six organisations in Kazakhstan. All are classified State-Controlled, and none sits in the independent family.

The Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation operates four republican television channels, fourteen regional companies and three radio services. Khabar Agency operates the Khabar and 24KZ channels. First Channel Eurasia is operated by a partnership 80 per cent held within the RTRK group, with Russia’s Channel One holding the remaining 20 per cent. The Television and Radio Complex of the President operates Jibek Joly television and radio, the international channels Silk Way, Silk Way Cinema and Silk Way Prime, the Kazinform news agency and the Documentary Film Centre. Qazaq Gazetteri publishes eleven newspapers and magazines including Egemen Qazaqstan and Kazakhstanskaya Pravda. Qazcontent operates five internet platforms including BAQ.KZ, EL.KZ and the Government’s official site.

Public financing tied explicitly to the conduct of state information policy reaches all six, though through more than one budget mechanism. RTRK, Khabar Agency, Qazaq Gazetteri and Qazcontent are financed under the Ministry of Culture and Information’s programme for placement of the state information order. The Television and Radio Complex of the President is financed separately, under a programme of the President’s Property Management Department, for services conducting state information policy. RTRK separately operates a state assignment specifying the volume of broadcasting it must deliver, a distinct instrument from the information order itself.

Two features of these arrangements are documented in the organisations’ own words. RTRK’s assignment states its objective as ensuring population coverage by state information policy. Qazcontent’s 2024 annual report characterises its websites as sources of official state information conveying the state’s official version and position.

Governance follows the same pattern. Five of the six lie within the Ministry of Culture and Information’s ownership or control chain, four directly and First Channel Eurasia indirectly through ATN and RTRK. The Television and Radio Complex sits instead under the President’s Property Management Department, a body directly subordinate to the President, and the Presidential Press Service coordinates its television coverage of presidential events. Several boards now include independent directors, but in each case the board is elected by the state shareholder, and no appointment channel exists for parliament, audiences, employees or professional bodies.

Senior appointments circulate between these organisations and the state. During the review period Lyazzat Tanysbay moved from RTRK to First Channel Eurasia and then to Khabar Agency; Erzhan Baitles became head of Qazaq Gazetteri directly from the post of Deputy Press Secretary to the President; and Adil Seifullin took over Qazcontent from an advisory position to the Minister of Culture and Information.

Against this, independent journalism has come under intensifying pressure, particularly around the parliamentary election of 23 August 2026, held under a constitutional structure approved by referendum on 15 March that established a unicameral Kurultai. The Committee to Protect Journalists described the pressure as unprecedented, ranging from criminal prosecutions to professional bans.

Gulnara Bazhkenova, former editor-in-chief of the independent outlet Orda, received an eight-year prison sentence on 18 August 2026, although imprisonment was deferred for two years because she has a minor child; she was also barred from journalism and a range of other public activities. Reporters Without Borders reported that Amir Kasenov and Aset Matayev of the news agency KazTAG were prohibited from journalistic activity for five years. In April 2025 Temirlan Yensebek of the satirical outlet Qaznews24 received five years of restricted freedom, preventing him from working as a journalist. Sixteen journalists of RFE/RL’s Kazakh service were denied accreditation renewal in June and July 2025; a court rejected the challenge concerning the first seven on 20 August, proceedings concerning the remaining nine were stayed in September pending resolution of the first case, and the August ruling was upheld on appeal in January 2026.

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