Tajik Media Desperate for Financial Journalists
Monday, 12 February, 2007
Tajik Media Desperate for Financial Journalists
Monday, 12 February, 2007
Journalists’ total lack of financial understanding was flagged up at a meeting between the heads of national banks and international organisations held in the US embassy in Dushanbe on February 7.
Out of 270 newspapers and over 80 journals published in Tajikistan, only a handful cover financial developments. Zafar Abdullaev, editor-in-chief of the Facts and Comments newspaper, says that there are no special business media-outlets in the country.
Tajikistan just doesn’t have the expertise, he said. “We have repeatedly advertised for financial journalists, but haven’t found anyone who really knows about economic issues,” lamented Abdullaev.
The scant knowledge of economics within Tajik media is demonstrated by poor business reporting in the local press.
The editor-in-chief of Business and Politics newspaper, Rahmon Ulmasov, says that the press have to rely on professional economists to report on business news, but their language is so complicated ordinary readers can’t understand it.
In addition to domestic confusion, the lack of coherent financial reporting has the potential to hinder foreign investment. Political observer Shokirjon Hakimov suggests that journalists’ poor interpretation of economics puts foreign businessmen off dealing with Tajik companies. Investors are often guided by such media reports, which don’t paint a very professional picture of the country in their minds.
Nuriddin Karshibaev, head of the National Association of Tajikistan’s Independent Media, believes that journalists and economists should be encouraged to cooperate and develop education programmes, while Umed Babahanov, director of the news agency Asia Plus, proposes that Tajik universities start to offer financial journalism training courses.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
