Kazakhstan police raid Orda, charge top editor over ‘false information’

New York, December 2, 2025—Kazakh authorities should drop criminal “false information” charges against Gulnara Bazhkenova, editor-in-chief of the independent outlet Orda, and allow the outlet and its staff to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On December 1, armed police raided Orda’s editorial offices in the capital, Astana, and in the southern city of Almaty, detained at least five staff members, and searched Bazhkenova’s home. Authorities accused Bazhkenova of “repeated and deliberate distribution of knowingly false information” and ordered her to be placed under house arrest for two months pending investigation. The remaining staff members were released after questioning.

The actions come after months of alleged harassment of Bazhkenova and Orda — one of Kazakhstan’s most popular critical media outlets — including cyberattacks, hacking attempts, threats of violence, and fake announcements of Bazhkenova’s death.

“The police raid of Orda and the criminal charges against Gulnara Bazhkenova mark a deeply concerning escalation of pressure on Kazakh independent media and once again show how susceptible Kazakhstan’s ‘false information’ laws are to abuse,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Kazakh authorities should drop the charges against Bazhkenova and urgently reform the law to ensure that defamation cases are resolved exclusively through civil law proceedings.”

Orda reported that police held the outlet’s Almaty staff for around five hours during the search of the editorial office, denied entry to lawyers, and refused to show a search warrant. Officers confiscated computer equipment, documents, cash from the outlet’s safe, and journalists’ phones, and took Bazhkenova, Orda’s Astana and Almaty bureau chiefs, a news editor, and an accountant into custody for questioning.

Almaty police announced multiple false information charges against Bazhkenova, citing reporting from 2024, and said that investigations were ongoing into her older work. 

Prominent Kazakh rights defenders and journalists have suggested the charges may be retaliation for high-profile publications by Orda earlier this year linking the country’s then-foreign minister to large-scale corruption and the 2024 assassination of an opposition blogger.

Kazakh authorities have increasingly brought false information charges against independent media in recent months, fining U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and fining or arresting several prominent independent journalists.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan and the Almaty police department for comment but did not immediately receive any replies.