Press (Un)Freedom Discussed in Turkmenistan
Press (Un)Freedom Discussed in Turkmenistan
A recent training workshop held in Turkmenistan suggests that journalists there aspire to international standards, but the complete lack of freedom in the heavily state-controlled media makes this impossible.
The April 3 training event was organised jointly by the Ashgabat office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, and the foreign ministry of Turkmenistan.
The state news agency TDH reports that the participants, drawn from newspapers, TV and radio, learned about the basic principles of press freedom and looked at how media operate abroad.
The agency said participants expressed interest in further events of this kind. Somewhat tellingly, they apparently described the aim of media development as being to “assist the tasks of democratic development which [President] Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has designated one of the top priorities for the state”.
Training workshops for journalist are a rare occurrence in Turkmenistan. Although another one was held in late February, focusing on how to write about healthcare issues, that was the first to be held in a number of years.
Local media-watchers say Turkmen journalists welcome every opportunity of this kind, as they are well aware of the shortage of skills and knowledge in their sector.
One of the journalists who attended the OSCE-led event said, “I learned that in most countries, the media provide public scrutiny of the authorities. We’re a long way off getting to that stage.”
In its most recent report, covering 2008, the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, ranked Turkmenistan third from the bottom in its World Press Freedom Index, surpassed only by North Korea and Eritrea for the suppression of media freedom and the persecution of journalists.
There are no independent media in Turkmenistan. The late president Saparmurat Niazov enforced strict censorshop and rigorous control over the state media sector and all who work in it.
Elected to replace the late Niazov in early 2007, Berdymuhammedov made a series of reform pledges. He reopened university departments of journalism which his predecessor had closed, and urged media outlets to improve their coverage.
In reality, though, Niazov-era restrictions and constraints remain little changed.
Gabor Horvath and Istvan Kulcsar, the Hungarian trainers who ran the recent workshop, said participants displayed a hunger for press freedom and asked what it would take for Turkmenistan to change in that direction.
Participants themselves were sceptical about the prospects for putting their newly-acquired knowledge to good use.
“Of course we improved our professional standards, but we have no chance of applying our skills here,” said one of the television journalists who attended.
A local media-watcher said fear of retribution made the participating journalists reluctant to write articles even as a training exercise, for fear that this could be used against them later. For example, when one of the trainers asked them to put together a fictitious press release on government plans to hold a World Cup football event in Turkmenistan, they refused to do so.
“How can we write freely and discuss a topic that concerns the president?” said one of the participants afterwards. “There must have been secret service officers among our number, and they would have known what we were discussing.”
(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 has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
The April 3 training event was organised jointly by the Ashgabat office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, and the foreign ministry of Turkmenistan.
The state news agency TDH reports that the participants, drawn from newspapers, TV and radio, learned about the basic principles of press freedom and looked at how media operate abroad.
The agency said participants expressed interest in further events of this kind. Somewhat tellingly, they apparently described the aim of media development as being to “assist the tasks of democratic development which [President] Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has designated one of the top priorities for the state”.
Training workshops for journalist are a rare occurrence in Turkmenistan. Although another one was held in late February, focusing on how to write about healthcare issues, that was the first to be held in a number of years.
Local media-watchers say Turkmen journalists welcome every opportunity of this kind, as they are well aware of the shortage of skills and knowledge in their sector.
One of the journalists who attended the OSCE-led event said, “I learned that in most countries, the media provide public scrutiny of the authorities. We’re a long way off getting to that stage.”
In its most recent report, covering 2008, the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, ranked Turkmenistan third from the bottom in its World Press Freedom Index, surpassed only by North Korea and Eritrea for the suppression of media freedom and the persecution of journalists.
There are no independent media in Turkmenistan. The late president Saparmurat Niazov enforced strict censorshop and rigorous control over the state media sector and all who work in it.
Elected to replace the late Niazov in early 2007, Berdymuhammedov made a series of reform pledges. He reopened university departments of journalism which his predecessor had closed, and urged media outlets to improve their coverage.
In reality, though, Niazov-era restrictions and constraints remain little changed.
Gabor Horvath and Istvan Kulcsar, the Hungarian trainers who ran the recent workshop, said participants displayed a hunger for press freedom and asked what it would take for Turkmenistan to change in that direction.
Participants themselves were sceptical about the prospects for putting their newly-acquired knowledge to good use.
“Of course we improved our professional standards, but we have no chance of applying our skills here,” said one of the television journalists who attended.
A local media-watcher said fear of retribution made the participating journalists reluctant to write articles even as a training exercise, for fear that this could be used against them later. For example, when one of the trainers asked them to put together a fictitious press release on government plans to hold a World Cup football event in Turkmenistan, they refused to do so.
“How can we write freely and discuss a topic that concerns the president?” said one of the participants afterwards. “There must have been secret service officers among our number, and they would have known what we were discussing.”
(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 has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
