The Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan (哈薩克斯坦記者協會) is a national journalists’ organization based in Almaty. It was re-established in 2001 as the legal successor to the Soviet-era union of journalists of the Kazakh SSR, which state media date to 1959. The old union lapsed after failing to re-register under a 1996 law on public associations. From its re-establishment, the union was led by Seitkazy Matayev, a former press secretary to President Nursultan Nazarbayev who also headed the National Press Club. He is credited with reviving the union and its regional branches. In 2016, Matayev was convicted of embezzling state funds and tax evasion, charges his family called politically motivated. He was released on parole in December 2017, and state media again described him as the union’s chairman in 2024. According to a report in early 2026, the union’s membership had exceeded 6,000. The union has engaged with the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, since at least 2017. That year, a union representative attended a Belt and Road journalist organizations’ forum in Beijing addressed by ACJA leadership. In September 2026, the union co-organized the China-Kazakhstan Media Roundtable in Almaty with the ACJA.