Kazakhstan adopts law to tighten control over the Internet

Kazakhstan's parliament has approved a law tightening state control of the internet. The bill would subject blogs, chat rooms and social networking sites to possible criminal prosecution, enabling the courts to block all websites considered in breach of Kazakh law.

Media rights activists say the law is designed to allow arbitary crackdowns on anyone opposing Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's president.

According to the government`s state information agency, the legislation is aimed at stopping the dissemination of illegal information such as child pornography, extremist literature and other unsuitable material on the internet.

Besides, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Europe's main human rights and security watchdog, has criticised the move.

According to Miklos Haraszti, representative on media freedom, the bill would limit freedom of the internet and media freedom in general and its adoption would be a step backwards in the democratisation of Kazakhstan's media governance.

Kazakhstan is due to take over chairmanship of the OSCE in six months' time.

"Refusing to enact this law will send a strong signal that the forthcoming OSCE chairmanship of Kazakhstan in 2010 intends to fully honour the country's OSCE media freedom commitments," Haraszti said.

However, Nursultan Nazarbayev has to sign the bill before it can be passed into law.

The growing media restrictions in the country have sparked off a small protest in Almaty, staged by Kazakhstan's political opposition, as well as independent and opposition media.