Draft:Esimxan Kanaatov

Esimxan Kanaatov (Karakalpak: Есимхан Қанаатов, born c. 1981) is a Kazakh PhD scientist and journalist, who researched culture of people of Southern Aral sea region. Esimxan was born in Tamdy district in Navayi region. Kanaatov used to be a chief editor of the Karakalpak newspaper "El xizmetinde" (At the service of people), where Karakalpak human rights defender Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov also worked.

In 2004, Esimxan taught at the faculty of journalism in the Karakalpak State University. He also worked at the Karakalpak Information Agency. Kanaatov wrote his PhD thesis on the folklore.

Esimxan Kanaatov and 26 people were tried by Uzbekistan's court after the 2022 protests in Karakalpakstan. When the court process finished, Abdimalik and Esimxan were given 5 years' house arrest and fined 230 millom sums ($18,000).. "The Uzbek authorities equate providing information in Karakalpakstan with organising riots. Independent journalism in this autonomous region has almost been wiped out by crackdowns in the past two years. RSF is alarmed by this blanket of repression on a subject so vital to public interest and by the criminalisation of the work of journalists — who must be released immediately", said Jeanne Cavelier, an expert of Reporters Without Borders