About 1.5 million Kazakhstanis who use satellite television with foreign channels are not aware of what is happening in Kazakhstan, the Information and Communications Minister, Dauren Abayev said at the plenary session in Majilis, Kazpravda.kz reports.
"Now about 600 000 families use the so-called "gray plates", which do not include Kazakhstan's TV channels. It appears that 1.5 million people are outside the information field of Kazakhstan, or, to be more precise, do not watch Kazakhstan TV channels and do not know what is happening in Kazakhstan," Dauren Abayev said during the first reading of the amendments to the legislation on Information and Communications.
The minister explained that citizens of Kazakhstan can continue to use unregistered satellite TV, as there are no measures of influencing the consumers. It is the sellers of TV cards for satellite dishes who will be penalized, according to the bill.
"This problem is acute all over Kazakhstan, we only bring out the people who distribute the cards, they are really outside the legal domain of Kazakhstan. The money goes away via electronic payments; according to our sources, the funds can even go to Cyprus," the minister specified.
Reported by Jania Urankaeva for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.