Open Asia is a public interest television programme consisting of programme segments produced by Internews, together with independent local journalists from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The project provides a platform for independent, in-depth reporting on issues of vital interest to the Central Asian viewing audience, and also serves as a vehicle for training journalists.
'Oktrytaia Aziia' (Open Asia) is a weekly television news journal covering issues of regional interest and importance, broadcast in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Besides providing information to a potential viewing audience of 20 million people, the Open Asia project emphasises the protection of the basic right of freedom of expression by supporting the independence of television stations across Central Asia. It was originally launched by Internews in April 1999, and currently operates with support from USAID, an European Community grant from the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, and several smaller grants.
Open Asia is produced by Internews offices in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in collaboration with independent TV stations in these countries, and is presently broadcast on over 40 stations. It is currently the only public interest programme in Central Asia covering regional issues from a local perspective, offering an alternative to government-sponsored or sanctioned programming. In particular, the programme has a mandate to cover rule of law and human rights issues.
The media environment
The media environment in all four republics is difficult, with the government
exercising tight control of all media outlets. A new US State Department report
on human rights has mentioned Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan as violators
of media rights. The report states, for example, that under Kazakh media law
journalists are criminally responsible for reproducing foreign press articles.
The Kazakh law also places tight restrictions on foreign broadcasts.
In Uzbekistan, freedom of the press is guaranteed by law, but in practice such laws are not enforced and are even used against the media. A 1997 media law, for example, stipulates that journalists are responsible for truthful reporting. The effect has been to stifle reporting as journalists are forced to practice self-censorship or face fines or imprisonment.
In Kyrgyzstan, independent journalists have been under severe pressure from the state, which has used the US war against terrorism as a pretext to suppress the independent and opposition media and denounced those critical of the government as supporting terrorism. The law on mass media, which categorises libel as a criminal rather than a civil offence, has placed journalists under constant pressure to censor their own reporting or face lawsuits, imprisonment and harassment. The government has attempted to quell any mass media expression by the opposition through financial and legal harassment.
In Tajikistan, the Moscow-based Glasnost Foundation has reported that more than 60 journalists were killed during the time of its civil war in the 1990s, making it one of the most deadly environments in which to work as a journalist. Even after the end of the civil war, journalists continued to receive death threats. Tajikistan, like its neighbours, has a Press Freedom law and a constitution that guarantee press freedom, but neither the government nor opposition groups have respected these guarantees. Journalists are subject to fine or imprisonment for 'irresponsible' reporting, which has often been interpreted as reporting critical of the government.
Throughout the region, the state maintains control of much of the media, though the degree of control varies. In Tajikistan, for example, the only nation-wide broadcasters are state-run, but over 20 independent television stations are able to operate, and about of quarter of the country's 200 publications exercise some degree of independence.
In Kazakhstan, government control over the media has been heavy-handed despite laws protecting the media. According to Freimut Duve, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the current war on terrorism has prompted the government to arrest and harass journalists critical of the government under the guise of supporting terrorism. Much of the private media is in fact controlled by members of president Nursultan Nazarbaev's extended family, effectively and indirectly handing control to the government.
Contributing to peace and stability
In the view of Internews regional director for Central Asia Ivan Sigal, Open
Asia makes a significant contribution to the effort to build peace and stability
in the region by facilitating the flow of information. "I tend to focus on the
idea that information - honest truthful information - is good, and more of it
is better," explains Sigal. "I'm very interested in plurality of information
sources."
Internews sees Open Asia not only as a vehicle for the presentation of a range of views and information to Central Asian audiences, but also as a means to improve the production skills of Central Asian television journalists (and thereby enhance their capacity to continue to serve as providers of independent information). The programme is produced entirely by local journalists and camerapersons. Producers come not only from the capital cities but also out of many provincial cities and towns - from Khorog in Tajikistan's Pamiri mountains, Aktiubinsk on Kazakhstan's northwestern steppe, the densely populated Fergana Valley, and Uzbekistan's arid and empty western desert, to cite a few examples.
According to Sigal, "The programme pushes journalists to make better television, and better reporting, focusing on stories about the problems of real people, telling stories through their eyes, rather than the traditional, Soviet newsreel-style reporting, in which the reporter reads a text that is laid over images without any narrative relationship to the words."
"The first component," says Sigal, "is journalism training for broadcasting: how to shoot, how to edit, how to write for TV and radio, marketing for television station managers, management for stations, a fairly large legal advocacy project focusing on mass media regulation to develop law to protect journalists, and more importantly to make sure they're enforced."
A basic tenet of the project is that Open Asia provides viewers with the opportunity to view stories about the region, and to learn about conflicts that national broadcasters will not cover and that local private broadcasters cannot afford to cover. Through this information, viewers are then able to participate more fully in the socio-political lives of the region.
Open Asia serves as a platform for longer-format feature stories, incorporating analysis and journalistic research. The selection criteria for determining what stories to cover include a story's inherent interest-value for the viewing public, its potential impact, and the importance of the issues addressed in a more general sense. Examples of Open Asia broadcasts include: o unique footage spotlighting Tajik civilian casualties caused by mines on the border with Uzbekistan - mines whose existence is denied by Uzbek authorities; o an investigation into extortion of migrants and travellers by Kazakh police; o stories about unilateral border demarcations by Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, splitting towns and families; o reports of possible election fraud in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic.
Journalists from the participating stations, or stringers, who work together with Internews producers, shoot most stories. The programme's producers invite potential participants (independent reporters, editors, and camera operators, as well as employees of local stations) to submit specific story proposals.
More than 1,200 TV and radio professionals have been trained under the Internews programme in Central Asia. Training, which is offered free of charge, consists of frequent seminars focusing on a range of topics related to journalism, marketing, management, media law, and technical skills. Teams of experts also take up residence at local television stations and serve as consultants to local staff. "Several graduates of Internews training have aired stories on CNN's World Report," says Sigal. "Others have been selected for training programmes in Europe and the US, sponsored by various international media support organisations."
Informal assessment of Open Asia has taken place on an ongoing basis, through the network of participants involved in programme production and training sessions. However, precise data on the impact or reach of the programme is not available because there is no audience rating system in place in Central Asia. What is clear, according to Sigal, is that some stations have declined to broadcast the programme because of political pressure or political considerations.
Open Asia currently has funding through summer 2003, and Sigal hopes that it will continue for a number of years beyond that, pending new grants. "There is little local funding for such projects,' says Sigal. 'TV production is an expensive business so support for is really important in this case. Even if TV stations really wanted it, they could not pay for it in its current form."
Resources
Media in the CIS www.internews.ru/books/media1999/index.html
IJNet, Kazakhstan: Press Overview, 2000
International Crisis Group Report dated April 4th, 2002 (ICG Asia Report No.
33).
Kenley Butler, Internal Conflicts and Security Concerns in Central Asia and
Afghanistan, Center for Non Proliferation Studies, 2002
IJNet - Annual U.S. survey condemns lack of press freedom in many nations, 3/22/02
EurasiaNet.org 5/15/02
IJNet - Uzbekistan: Press Overview, 2000
www.internews.org