Protesters Take Journalist Hostage in Kazakhstan

Internet access has been completely shut down across Kazakhstan. According to RIA Novosti, this was announced by the company NetBlocks.

"Kazakhstan is now experiencing a total internet shutdown. Prior to this, it had been partially operational for an entire day with certain limitations primarily affecting mobile internet connectivity. This is likely to severely restrict coverage of the anti-government protests," stated the company's publication on Twitter.

Previously, reports indicated that access to certain government websites in Kazakhstan has been blocked from abroad, and various media outlets' online resources are also non-functional. Currently, it is impossible to access the pages of zakon.kz, tengrinews.kz, and vlast.kz, and Sputnik Kazakhstan's website is also unavailable.

Protesters held a correspondent of Sputnik Kazakhstan hostage for about an hour. Sputnik Kazakhstan reports that the correspondent was taken hostage in the building of the media offices located at Republic Square in Almaty. The journalist has managed to escape from the besieged building.

There are reports that protesters have seized the headquarters of the "Mir 24" television channel in Almaty and are demanding to be given live broadcast time. Despite the assaults on local television channels, it has just been announced that Kazakhstan's President Tokayev will soon address the public via national television channels.