Bangladesh, Sept. 15 -- The disappearance of one of Kazakhstan's leading independent news outlets has intensified concerns over the future of press freedom in a country where critical journalism is facing growing legal, political and institutional pressure.

Orda.kz stopped publishing less than a month after its editor-in-chief, Gulnara Bazhkenova, was sentenced by an Almaty court to eight years in prison. Although the outlet's majority owner, Maksat Ganiyev, has insisted that the closure was driven by financial considerations, press freedom advocates argue that the timing and circumstances point to something far more troubling: the culmination of a sustained campaign against independent media.

Ganiyev has publicly rejected claims that ...