For Immediate Release
October 1, 2009

KAZAKHSTAN DECIDES IN FAVOR OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

ASTANA, Kazakhstan-Kazakhstan has officially recognized Jehovah’s Witnesses‘
signature journals The Watchtower and Awake! as being educational and
primarily religious

This written conclusion from the Department of Internal Policy of the City
of Almaty came after the facts were clearly presented in meetings with
governmental officials and human rights organizations.

Earlier, local authorities in Taldykorgan, Almaty region, initiated steps to
label the most widely translated and internationally distributed religious
magazines in the world as dangerous and extreme, which would have banned
their distribution in Kazakhstan.

Polat Bekzhan of the Religious Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Republic
of Kazakhstan reacted to the development:  “We are happy to report that the
letter of the Committee of Religious Affairs making the unfounded claim that
our magazines present a ‘potential threat for the security of the state’ has
been cancelled.

“Believers can continue to receive our magazines without hindrance and may
share and discuss the same religious information as the more than seven
million other Jehovah’s Witnesses do worldwide.”

The corrective steps taken in this matter by officials in Kazakhstan protect
fundamental rights of belief and worship. The steps are also in accord with
the “National Human Rights Action Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” an
initiative Kazakhstan set out to implement in the years 2009-2012.

The Watchtower and Awake! magazines have a circulation of over 36,000,000
each month. Both are available to the public in print in 82 languages, many
also online. The October 2009 issue of Awake! covers “Secrets of Family
Success.”

Kazakhstan: Polat Bekzhan, telephone: +7 727 226 33 63
USA: Greg Olds, telephone: +1 845 306 0711
Europe: Marc Hansen, telephone: +32 2 782 0015

Copyright C 2009 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. All
rights reserved.

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