New York, February 4, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the two-month pretrial detention of Temirlan Yensebek, founder of the Instagram-based satirical outlet Qaznews24, on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, for which he could face seven years in jail. 

“The incitement charges against Temirlan Yensebek raise concerns that he’s being targeted for his biting political satire,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Kazakh authorities should release Yensebek, drop the charges against him, and free journalists Ruslan Biketov and Asem Zhapisheva, who were detained for protesting Yensebek’s arrest.”

Police in the southern city of Almaty arrested Yensebek on January 17. He was charged over a January 2024 Qaznews24 post, which has since been taken down, featuring a two-decade-old song with offensive lyrics about Russians, Kazakhstan’s largest ethnic minority. Authorities have since ordered the song be removed from social media.  

Yensebek’s lawyer, Zhanara Balgabayeva, told CPJ that the charges were inappropriate and “merely a pretext” to jail Yensebek. She said the post was clearly marked as satirical and Yensebek did not author or perform the song, which was not banned.

Balgabayeva’s view was echoed by journalists and activists who described it as a retaliatory response to a January 3 Qaznews24 post mocking Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.  

In a country with few independent media outlets, Yensebek has succeeded in using satire to comment on current affairs. With social media, he regularly publishes spoof news stories that criticize authorities.

Qaznews24’s political commentary has attracted more than 67,000 followers since its launch in 2021 — and the ire of authorities who swiftly arrested Yensebek on false information charges. The case was later dropped on the grounds that satire should not be prosecuted as false information.

On January 19 and 20, police detained independent journalists Biketov, of the online outlet Kursiv, and Zhapisheva, for separately protesting Yensebek’s arrest. They were sentenced to 15 days’ administrative detention for alleged violation of Kazakhstan’s strict public protest laws.

Almaty police did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via email but were quoted as saying Yensebek was detained for publishing material “containing clear signs of incitement of ethnic hatred.”

(Editor’s note: The fourth paragraph of this alert has been updated to correct a typo.)

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.