The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Kazakh government Monday to reinstate accreditation for 16 journalists from the US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). This comes ahead of the outlet’s pending appeal hearing.

CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said, stated, “RFE/RL’s bold reporting has an absolutely central place in Kazakhstan’s media sphere, and we await with deep concern a court verdict that could dramatically hinder its work.”

RFE/RL claimed the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs had denied its accreditation applications for 16 of its journalists, including the service’s bureau chief, because they had allegedly violated the law by conducting journalistic work while their accreditation applications were still pending. RFE/RL argued that the ministry had failed to process the applications within the two-month limitation period stipulated in the statute, and that the government had subsequently used the situation they had themselves created “as a basis for denying accreditation.”

According to paragraph 4 of Article 30 of the Law “On Mass Media,” enacted in 2024, foreign media outlets and foreign journalists are prohibited from engaging in professional journalistic activities in Kazakhstan without obtaining proper accreditation. However, RFE/RL asserted that the ban on unaccredited activity of “foreign journalists” does not protect its staff because of their Kazakh citizenship.

The Kazakhstan Foreign Affairs Ministry’s refusal of accreditation for 16 RFE/RL journalists was also previously condemned by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as a “blatant” attack on independent media. In particular, HRW stated that the authorities are in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of expression and the right to impart information and ideas of all kinds.