Missing the Point of Press Freedom Day
Missing the Point of Press Freedom Day
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan marked World Press Freedom with events that reflected the authorities’ skewed vision of what free media means. The Turkmen president scolded the media for not conveying the official line properly, while in Uzbekistan, awards were handed out to reporters who toe the official line.
World Press Freedom Day has been celebrated on May 3 since the United Nations General Assembly established the date in 1993 and urged world governments to guarantee a free and democratic press.
Every year, international watchdogs provide assessments of the state of media freedom, and on April 30 the United States-based House listed Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan among the ten worst offenders, alongside Burma, Eritrea, Libya and North Korea.
In its annual report covering 2007, the French-based Reporters Without Borders placed Uzbekistan 160th and Turkmenistan 167th out of 169 countries ranked according to freedom of speech.
World Press Freedom Day is not a major event in either Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan, but the authorities in both countries did address the issue in their own way.
Uzbekistan announced the results of a competition for journalists called “Oltin Kalam” or “Golden Pen”. It was not really a surprise when the winners turned out to be the heads of the state TV and radio channel Uzbekiston, the Akhborot news programme, and a number of journalists from government-run newspapers.
No independent journalists were even nominated.
As a media-watcher in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, said, “Although this contest was timed to coincide with Press Freedom Day, the whole approach to it was in time-honoured fashion. What was being judged was above all the extent of one’s loyalty to the authorities and to the policies of President Islam Karimov.”
An observer of the media in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat said there was no official mention of Press Freedom Day as such. On the day, though, the Neytralny Turkmenistan newspaper – again state-owned – published a report on a cabinet meeting where President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov laid into media chiefs for failing to give readers a “professional and objective” account of current government policies.
A lawyer working for a non-government organisation argued that journalists in Turkmenistan should try to use such internationally-recognised dates to press for greater freedoms, for example attempting to reduce the number of articles that are generated on the instructions of the authorities.
This approach might just work, he said, explaining, “The Berdymuhammedov authorities are positioning themselves as nascent democrats and might just make concessions.”
However, the media expert in Ashgabat said progress of this kind was impossible. “It’s out of the question, as all the local journalists work for the state media and they’re happy with a situation where everything they write is on the orders of the leadership,” he said.
The media-watcher in Tashkent agreed that in an environment where civil rights are routinely abused, the standard of living is low and poverty is widespread, many journalists prefer to be in close proximity to the powers that be, and to take advantage of the material benefits that come with the role of state ideologist.
In addition, he said, many of these journalists genuinely believe their country is surrounded by enemies and is being targeted by the west in an “information war”.
“These people think the European concept of freedom of speech and press freedom pose a real danger to the independence and stability in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, so they are not going to change their ways,” he said.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
World Press Freedom Day has been celebrated on May 3 since the United Nations General Assembly established the date in 1993 and urged world governments to guarantee a free and democratic press.
Every year, international watchdogs provide assessments of the state of media freedom, and on April 30 the United States-based House listed Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan among the ten worst offenders, alongside Burma, Eritrea, Libya and North Korea.
In its annual report covering 2007, the French-based Reporters Without Borders placed Uzbekistan 160th and Turkmenistan 167th out of 169 countries ranked according to freedom of speech.
World Press Freedom Day is not a major event in either Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan, but the authorities in both countries did address the issue in their own way.
Uzbekistan announced the results of a competition for journalists called “Oltin Kalam” or “Golden Pen”. It was not really a surprise when the winners turned out to be the heads of the state TV and radio channel Uzbekiston, the Akhborot news programme, and a number of journalists from government-run newspapers.
No independent journalists were even nominated.
As a media-watcher in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, said, “Although this contest was timed to coincide with Press Freedom Day, the whole approach to it was in time-honoured fashion. What was being judged was above all the extent of one’s loyalty to the authorities and to the policies of President Islam Karimov.”
An observer of the media in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat said there was no official mention of Press Freedom Day as such. On the day, though, the Neytralny Turkmenistan newspaper – again state-owned – published a report on a cabinet meeting where President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov laid into media chiefs for failing to give readers a “professional and objective” account of current government policies.
A lawyer working for a non-government organisation argued that journalists in Turkmenistan should try to use such internationally-recognised dates to press for greater freedoms, for example attempting to reduce the number of articles that are generated on the instructions of the authorities.
This approach might just work, he said, explaining, “The Berdymuhammedov authorities are positioning themselves as nascent democrats and might just make concessions.”
However, the media expert in Ashgabat said progress of this kind was impossible. “It’s out of the question, as all the local journalists work for the state media and they’re happy with a situation where everything they write is on the orders of the leadership,” he said.
The media-watcher in Tashkent agreed that in an environment where civil rights are routinely abused, the standard of living is low and poverty is widespread, many journalists prefer to be in close proximity to the powers that be, and to take advantage of the material benefits that come with the role of state ideologist.
In addition, he said, many of these journalists genuinely believe their country is surrounded by enemies and is being targeted by the west in an “information war”.
“These people think the European concept of freedom of speech and press freedom pose a real danger to the independence and stability in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, so they are not going to change their ways,” he said.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service is resuming, covering only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the moment.)
