Nurzhan Baimuldin

Affiliated media: Express K, Journalist

Incident date: March 14, 2019

Attack type:

• Illegal impediments to journalistic activity, denial of access to information

Source: Adil Soz

Location: Kazakhstan, Akmola Province, Akmolinsk

Additional information:

On March 14th, Nurzhan Baimuldin, correspondent for the newspaper Express K, arrived at the Akmola Department of Public Health for a roundtable discussion, which was to start at 3 p.m. However, two police officers guarding the building said they would have to search him and demanded that the contents of his pockets be laid out and that the items be checked for prohibited items by hand-held metal detector. The department's management came down to the police checkpoint and confirmed that Baimuldin had come at their invitation and asked for the officers to skip him, but this was refused. After that, the journalist wanted to leave, but Sergeant Seitov called the investigative and operational team of the Kokshetau Police Department. Then Sergeant Seitov instructed the second sergeant not to let the journalist out of the building so that he could not run away. As a result, Nurzhan Baymuldin was illegally kept in the building until three police cars arrived. The officers who arrived, without even introducing themselves, checked the journalist's documents, but did nothing to stop the illegal actions of Sergeant Seitov, who had illegally detained the journalist.