However, in accordance with a June decree reiterating the importance of protecting the honor and dignity of the President, the Government ordered Uralsk authorities to arrest the youths and take them into custody. The case remains open. The case was scheduled to go to trial on December 22, however, one of the defendants, Ainur Kurmanov, who was on a 23-day hunger strike to protest his imprisonment, was too ill to stand trial. The court postponed the trial until January 19, 1998. Prominent opposition leaders, including Yuriy Vinkov of the Labor Movement, a Communist parliamentary deputy from Uralsk, Valeriy Zemliyanov, and the cochairmen of the Azamat political movement, are supporting the youths.
Several laws control advertising in the mass media.
Another law restricts the amount of advertising in newspapers to 20 percent of the total material in each issue. The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Press and Mass Media have interpreted this law as restricting paid articles, but not commercial advertisements. The Government respects academic freedom. Excerpted from the U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report For 1997. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1998.