Kazakh journalists claim being harassed by "special services"
ALMATY, Kazakhstan. July 10 (Interfax) - Journalists who launched a website after their former employer, the opposition newspaper 'Respublika', was closed down by a court in December, have complained they are being harassed by "special services."
"We are forced to state again that people who call themselves members of the special services are not leaving our staff alone," Oksana Makushina, one of the journalists who set up the R-Studiya website in April, told a news conference in Almaty on Wednesday.
In April, "pressure was put on the journalists through their families," Makushina said.
"This time our colleagues have experienced direct pressure. A hooligan assaulted our colleague Guzyal Baidalinova near the front door of her apartment building and jabbed her with a syringe. The journalist Sergei Zalipukhin had a visit from a man who demanded that he resign from the [website], threatened him and then tried to recruit him," she said.
"We want them to get out of our hair. Security services should only perform duties within their job description," Makushina said.
Late last year the Almaty prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit seeking a ruling that would declare Respublika to be a group comprised of eight newspapers and 23 websites and ban it. Later in December, an Almaty court satisfied the suit.
