Department of Public Information

The Department of Public Information is the government press office of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ). It is part of the Office of the Governor in Talas and is the one department of the territorial administration that kept both its name and its head's territorial title, Secretary of Public Information. It speaks for the government, publishes the bulletin in which executive decrees appear, oversees the state broadcaster IradOne, registers and licenses newspapers, publishers and printers, and supplies Attelkom with the lists of websites to be blocked.^[1] Its head since 2016 has been Burulai Akylova, a former IradOne news editor, and the government's spokeswoman, Meerim Kenzhebaeva, works under her.^[1]

Functions

The department issues the government's statements and press notices, which since October 2026 have also appeared on iradgov.org, the official portal of the Office of the Governor, run by its press office. It publishes executive decrees in its bulletin, and it published the results of the 2019 census.^[1] A decree of 2007 placed IradOne under its supervision, and it issues the broadcaster's editorial guidelines (see Media of Irad).^[2] Every periodical, publisher and printer must hold its registration, and it accredits journalists. It also decides on the commercial use of the Emblem of Irad.^[1]

The lists of websites that Attelkom blocks are issued by the department and go out over the Secretary's signature. Since Attelkom moved its international traffic to new gateway equipment in June 2026, the system has blocked by domain list instead of refusing foreign traffic wholesale, and the department's list still applies.^[3] In October 2026 the sites of the cryptocurrency Tulparcoin were blocked on one of its lists.^[4]

Suspensions and blocks

Press-freedom groups describe the department's pressure on the press as administrative. In March 2013, after the Irad Times criticized the amendment that removed gubernatorial term limits, it suspended the paper's registration for nine weeks, citing a licensing irregularity.^[2] The paper's website, hosted in the United States, has been blocked on its lists several times since, most recently from the evening of 15 October 2026. In 2024 it suspended the registration of Arsha Books, a small Talas publisher, after the press issued an anthology of poems written during the 2023 student protests; Human Rights Watch called the suspension censorship.^[5][3] The registration of the record label Köch Audio was suspended the same autumn.^[3]

Statements

Since the Governor's last public appearance in July 2024 the department has answered most questions about him. Asked in 2024 who had authorized payments from the export escrow accounts, it replied that the Lieutenant Governor acts for the Governor under the Acts.^[3] It described remarks by Ruslan Toktarov about Muslim citizens in 2025 as his personal views, presented the return of Iradi sites to foreign search results in 2026 as the result of its complaints about "cartographic discrimination", and said in September 2026 that the OSCE would be invited to observe the 2027 election "as in previous elections".^[1]

References

1. ^ Department of Public Information (2026). Directory of the Government of the ISEZ. Talas.
2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2014). 'Licensing the Press in the ISEZ.' Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 300–318.
3. ^ Human Rights Watch (2024). Switched Off: Internet Restrictions in the Irad Special Economic Zone. New York.
4. ^ Talas Herald (9 October 2026). 'Attelkom blocks Tulparcoin sites.' Talas. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
5. ^ Talas Herald (2024). 'Department suspends publisher of protest anthology.' Talas.