I waited for some big-wig Western media to publish something on the Eurasian Media Forum, which after three days finished on April 21. In the old tradition of the six-year-old “media initiative”, this year’s event featured high-profile speakers and hosted controversial discussions. However, relatively little of substance came through to the outside apart from one superb radio feature on Deutschlandradio and the Media Forum’s website.

Where were the journalists? Ayan Sharipbaev of Svoboda Slova thinks (my translation):

“This is no forum of journalists, but for journalists. They are supposed to come here, look at things and leave as quickly as possible. One could speak about those journalists that died here not too long ago, about those that were silenced - why this happens and how this can be.”

Asked why the forum deals more with international issues rather than with local problems, the director of the Forum Vladimir Reyrikh replies:

“It is very difficult to find people that speak about journalism professionally. Especially journalists can’t do that. Because they are too much tied into their job. In politics, the whole spectrum of political and cultural scientists and philosophers is united. Their reflexes are better. Journalists are simply too busy with their own things. And about the problem that our media does not always write freely about politics: This is due to the fact that media and politics is one and same thing. Unfortunately.”

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“Nazarbaev’s nightingale”, or Minister of Culture and Information Yermukhammet Ertisbaev seems to have caused some stir in the Kazakh media landscape.

During a press conference earlier this month, Eritsbaev demanded that journalists from the independent TV station Era leave the room.

Among those protesting against the minister’s rather rude behaviour were the heads of Kazakhstan’s Union of Journalists and Adil Soz. But, what is the problem?

“Okay, let’s say I prohibited it [from filming],” he said. “So what?”

True, the RFE/RL report does not mention the reason why Ertisbaev dismissed the critical reporters from his audience. Maybe the problem was that he made more comments in the aftermath that he should better not have made:

According to the him, an editor at “Vremya” called him and, in front of the cameras, Ertisbaev said: “I told him not to call me anymore. He asked me ‘why?’ and I said because you are repulsive,” Ertisbaev said.

Now it seems that everyone is going to sue each other. The nightingale should go, according to journalists from Vremya:

“When a nightingale gets bird flu you have to save yourself from it, irregardless of who owns it or what your political positions are,” Boreiko said.

Prime Minister Masimov is looking into the matter right now, so it’ll be interesting to watch that story over the next couple of days.

Incidentally, the only time I saw Ertisbaev behaving in a rather rude manner was when he fell asleep during a conference in London.