Public-Service TV Some Way Off

As a debate takes off about whether Tajikistan should have a public-service TV broadcaster, media experts say the decision will rest with the government, and the question is whether it would want to see such a service come into being.



The Friedrich Ebert Fund and Internews Tajikistan are holding a conference in Dushanbe on December 20 to discuss the experience of other countries in establishing public-service TV stations. Participants are expected to discuss whether this could be done in Tajikistan, too, and what the legal implications might be.



Tajikistan currently has three state-run TV channels, plus a number of privately-owned local channels which focus on entertainment. Rustam Haidarov, director of the Friedrich Ebert Fund’s Tajikistan office, believes it is time the country had public-service TV as well. “I know that many people from journalism, political groups and NGOs are interested in a television service that would not be commercialised and that would allow them to express their opinions freely,” he said.



Haidarov believes that if the government took up the idea and provided sufficient funding, a public-service broadcaster could be up and running in two or three years’ time.



However, other commentators doubt the time is ripe for this, arguing that the authorities would have no interest in making public-service TV happen.



The director of one private TV station that has yet to be granted a broadcasting licence says a public-service broadcaster is expected to be independent and able to seek out the truth, and this is likely to prove a stumbling-block - officials are fearful of strong, professional reporting.



Izzatmand Salomov, the deputy director of Internews in Tajikistan, said the nationwide coverage a public-service TV station would be required to provide would cost huge amounts of money. He predicts that such a station will not appear in the next five years – especially since in his view, “television is regarded as the ideological mouthpiece of the state”.



For all these doubts, though, Haidarov argues that the debate itself may create the conditions in which a public-service broadcaster could emerge.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)