A/HRC/13/23/Add.1 a serious shortfall for some minority schools. A lack of resources, corruption and printing presses that do not profit from small print runs for minority schools were blamed. 50. A meeting for minority women revealed their desire for equality of access to education and education outcomes to be improved for girls from minority communities. They noted that, especially in traditional rural communities, greater priority was given to the education of boys. Traditional gender roles were more likely to be preserved, thus restricting the opportunities for girls to pursue education. The Government notes that in December 2009 the Law on Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men was adopted with the aim of preventing discrimination on the grounds of sex. 51. Inequality of access to university for minority students was a common concern. University education is provided in Kazakh and Russian only,18 and the national testing system for high school students — the university entrance examination — is not available in minority languages. Consequently, minority students must first pass a graduation exam and then sit additional university entrance exams in Russian or Kazakh, which some struggle to pass owing to their poor language proficiency. Although an alternative “dissertation channel” exists for university entrance, minority representatives stated their desire for a long-term solution that ensures that language issues and difficulties faced by minority students are more thoroughly taken into account in the mainstream testing process. 52. The renaming of place or street names in the Kazakh language has reportedly become a politically charged issue causing growing resentment among minorities, including Uighurs and ethnic Russians. Some media have reportedly called for the renaming of the Uighur district of Almaty region following violent incidents between Kazakhs and Uighurs in late 2006. Uighur schools in this region have reportedly already had Uighur language signs and information reflecting Uighur history and commemorating Uighur public figures removed. Even in areas in which Uighurs make up a high proportion of the total population, restrictions exist on the use of Uighur as a means of official and administrative communication. 53. According to the Government, more than 80 per cent of the media is privately owned and it supports 19 regional national newspapers and numerous radio and television programmes in minority languages. The Russian minority has the greatest presence in the media, and Russian-language newspapers are common. Korean, Uighur, Ukrainian, Kurdish and German newspapers are also published. The Government states that there are 324 ethnic language media outlets and that it provides financial support for newspapers, magazines, television and radio programmes in ethnic languages. Since 2002, all television and radio outlets, including minority media, are required to broadcast at least 50 per cent of their programming in Kazakh. Reports suggest that broadcasting in minority languages has significantly declined. In 1998, Kazakh State television reportedly broadcast Uighurlanguage programmes for three hours a week; today this time has been reduced to 15 minutes. 54. Civil society representatives claimed that a significantly higher proportion of the media was under de facto Government control and that the media operates in a climate of suspicion, Government monitoring and sensitivity over certain issues, including coverage of ethnic or religious strife, which limit the right to freedom of expression. Liberal use of criminal libel charges, fines, threats and harassment are reportedly common, leading to selfcensorship over such issues as ethnic relations. A law on Internet regulation, adopted by Parliament on 24 June 2009, classifies websites, blogs and chat rooms as media outlets and reportedly subjects them to strict regulation regarding reporting of elections, rallies, strikes 18 14 The Government notes that 68 percent of the students in Kazakhstan’s higher education institutions are taught in Russian. GE.10-10602