An Opportunity for Press Freedom?

The overthrow of the government in Kyrgyzstan has meant that the country's media has had to reposition itself. Media that used to be close to the opposition are now close to the government, which says it wants to encourage press freedom. By Edda Schlager

One of the headlines on Kyrgyzstan's first TV channel KTR last week was about the station itself: Rosa Otunbayeva's interim government was planning to turn the state television channel into a public station that would be funded by the national budget and have a supervisory board. The announcement was intended as a clear signal from the government that one of its main policies would be the promotion of greater transparency, pluralism and independent media.

Edil Baissalov spent years writing for opposition media; now he's Rosa Otunbayeva's new chief of staff. He hopes the government will gain credibility from this move and will profit from it in the parliamentary elections planned for October.

"If we manage to set up a public television station within the next few months, to establish free access to information and press freedom, and to inspire journalists with these new values," he says, "then we have no reason to worry that society won't support us in October."

Little faith in the media

But the Kyrgyz people are sceptical about claims of credibility. The former president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, also promised to change the state television channel into a public station after the Tulip Revolution in 2005.

But instead, during his term of office, he closed down critical media, restricted critical journalists and forced the rest to toe the government line. The Kyrgyz people have virtually lost all faith in their own media. Until the uprising, television – especially KTR – was merely a mouthpiece for Bakiyev.

The new government would like to see the old pro-Bakiyev media starting to report in favour of those who are now in charge. New people have been appointed to responsible positions.

Kubat Otorbayev, who used to work for an opposition radio station, is the new head of KTR. He now has the task of turning KTR into a public station, in close cooperation with the new government.

That's not an easy task: "I have to work with people who used to work for the other side," he says. "It's very difficult to talk about this topic and to deal with it properly." Otorbayev says that many journalists can only imagine government media and opposition media. They don't have any concept of objective reporting. As far as they are concerned, you either work for someone or against him.

From journalism to politics

Babyrbek Jeenbekov was also an opposition journalist. He was editor and publisher of the newspaper Nazar, which he founded a year ago as a medium with which to attack the Bakiyev government.

Nazar was banned in March, but is now back on newsstands. Nevertheless, it's not clear what the future holds for papers like Nazar. Jeenbekov himself has gone into politics; he's now head of the committee that controls monopolies. That's a long way from journalism: now that he's involved in the new government, he seems to have lost interest.

Akmat Alagushev, a lawyer with the Media Policy Institute, an NGO that advises media and journalists, finds such cases annoying. He says that Kyrgyz journalists often lack the necessary professional ethics and the determination to develop themselves further.

He's disappointed: "Journalists now have a unique chance to work whatever way they like, since they now are respected," he says. "But our journalists just sit there and censor themselves. They have no bite. What does that mean? They should take responsibility! Go out! Work and publish! But that's exactly what our people lack."

Edda Schlager

Translated from the German by Michael Lawton

Edited by Aingeal Flanagan/Qantara.de

Qantara.de

Uprising in Kyrgyzstan
Used to Informal Solutions
Kyrgyzstan's interim government and its leader, Roza Otunbayeva, are firmly in the saddle after the recent overthrow of the authoritarian president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. But where to now for the Central Asian country after the changeover of power in Bishkek? Edda Schlager provides some answers

Religious vs. Secular Authorities
The Egyptian Sickness
Religious fanatics have long been waging a campaign in the courts and the media intended to silence critical intellectuals. The prominent political scientist Amr Hamzawy calls for a public debate on the issue of the status of Sharia in the Egyptian constitution

Brian Whitaker's "What's Really Wrong with the Middle East"
Franchised Repression
In his latest book, Brian Whitaker takes a look at the so-called 'Arab malaise'. In it Whitaker argues that the repressive reflexes of Arab regimes have been internalized and are repeated at virtually every layer of society. A review by James M. Dorsey