Over nine months of 2026, Kazakhstan opened 64 criminal cases under Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the dissemination of knowingly false information. Of these, nine cases were sent to court.
WHAT DATA THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS PROVIDED
As reported by Minister of Internal Affairs Yerzhan Sadenov in a response to a parliamentary inquiry, over nine months of 2026, under Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Dissemination of knowingly false information”), 64 criminal cases were opened. Nine of them were sent to court.
Under Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Incitement of social, national, ethnic, racial or religious hatred”), 72 criminal cases were opened during this period, of which 21 cases were sent to court.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT “TRASH STREAMING”
According to Yerzhan Sadenov, introducing a separate concept of “trash streaming” into legislation is inappropriate.
At the same time, under Article 456-2 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the posting and dissemination of false information and unlawful content, 124 persons were held liable over nine months.
CONTEXT
Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan has featured in several criminal cases related to the work of journalists.
In one of them, Botagoz Omarova was under house arrest. The criminal case was subsequently terminated after the publication of an official retraction in the case surrounding VD Stroy-Engineering LLP.
In the case of the heads of the KazTAG agency, Aset Matayev and Amir Kasenov, the charge was also linked to the agency’s publications. In July 2026, the court found both guilty. Taking into account the amnesty, the restriction of liberty terms for both amounted to 1 year 3 months.
Separately, Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan featured in the case of former ORDA editor-in-chief Gulnar Bazhkenova. She was charged with eight episodes linked to ORDA publications. In August 2026, the court found Bazhkenova guilty on all three articles and imposed 8 years of imprisonment with a deferral of the execution of the sentence for 2 years.
Another example was the case of blogger Adiletkhan Moldakhan. During the trial, the charge under Article 274 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan was reclassified from part 2 to part 3 — on the dissemination of knowingly false information that caused major damage or other grave consequences. The appellate court left the sentence imposed on him — 2 years 6 months of imprisonment — unchanged.
