Ever since Kyrgyzstan gained its independence, its mass media have been struggling to develop under tough conditions. There is no consistent state policy on the development of the media.  

The existing media laws do not promote progress. The law “The Mass Media,” adopted in 1992, has significant gaps. However, media representatives are very cautious about the idea of radically reforming the law; there have been fears that the authorities would use such a process as an opportunity to bring the media under stricter control. Despite these fears, mass media legislation should be reformed. Otherwise, the media will remain stagnant. The Ministry of Culture and Information has been working actively to propose bills regulating mass media activity.    

The country’s media legislation and the state’s information policy in the first place should have established equal conditions for entrance and operation in the media market. Today such equality exists only on paper, while in reality, all these years the government has favored media that are close to it. For instance, governmental, regional and district newspapers have great advantages. Their advantages include easier access to information, compulsory subscription by public employees and funding from the state budget. All those benefits give governmental newspapers more confidence. A governmental newspaper will never shut down, no matter how bad its financial situation is. According to the former speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh (Kyrgyz Parliament), Adahan Madumarov, 7 million soms were allocated for support of three governmental newspapers this year. Besides, the head of a governmental newspaper does not have to think about how to sell copies. These are all manifestations of inequality among actors in the media market. 

Another example of such inequality is the situation with a well-known city newspaper. At the end of 2007 the Anti-Monopoly Agency recognized this newspaper as a legal monopolist. Thus, the question raised by many newspapers was answered. In accordance with the Advertisement law, a public newspaper is allowed to allocate no more than 20% of its content for advertisements. This well-known newspaper gives much more space for ads in its Friday edition. When the other newspapers were required to follow the advertising rules, the Anti-Monopoly Agency protected this newspaper by making it a legal monopolist. Thus, advertising in the newspaper market is allocated unevenly.  

Meanwhile, creating equality among the actors in the media market could significantly contribute to mass media development. Many opponents of the state’s mass media policy say that all issues should be solved by the market. But the problem is that there is no media market in Kyrgyzstan, since there is no healthy competition among the actors. Such competition should be created by the state. Instead, we have a system in which private mass media must struggle for their existence in a market where they are not welcome. 

As a result of the inequality in the media market, our mass media remain in the first and not very progressive stage of development: “propaganda journalism.”  Propaganda journalism does not care much about information quality. Its main task is to make consumers of information (readers or the audience) think in a certain way. Propaganda mass media give some information to people to make them act in some particular way. One of the main features of propaganda journalism is its non-profit character. Such journalism does not pursue an aim and, thus, cannot be profitable. It is always dependent on owners and sponsors. Most of our mass media, unfortunately, remain in the stage of propaganda journalism; they are unable to – or have no desire to – reach a higher level. 

A more progressive type of journalism is “business-journalism.” The main characteristics of this type of journalism are economic profit-making, competition, financial independence from political groups, struggle for readers, and the adoption of new methods of operation. Creation of equal conditions in the media market could make our newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels move into the business-journalism stage. Most of the world’s mass media are in that stage of development.  

Today, Kyrgyzstan has some successful examples of media that have reached the second stage of development. Those are the Super-Info and Autoguide newspapers. Perhaps, it is hard to call what they do journalism, but they are definitely mass media. Those papers demonstrate growing circulation and improving quality and methods of presenting information. Unfortunately, under the media market’s current conditions only papers with a minimal number of editorial staff members that provide large amounts of space for commercial and entertainment features (crosswords, scanwords, anecdotes, reprints from Internet) can operate with the business-journalism model. There is no other way to survive in our wild media market. But with time, the successful experiences of commercial and entertainment papers will be adopted by news magazines, too. 

Development of the media market and creation of equal conditions for all actors in that market will inevitably lead to higher quality information and the introduction of new methods of mass media production. Today, the media sector in Kyrgyzstan is far behind in the adoption of the prevailing contemporary technologies for information production and dissemination. Local media do not use even 1 percent of the methods that exist in international media market. This can be explained by the fact that propaganda journalism does not need those methods. And this, in its turn, is a reason why local journalism is in a deep professional crisis.  

Despite the many workshops that have taken place in recent years, the qualitative level of the local media has remained the same because the workshop participants, having received new knowledge and skills, returned to their papers where nothing had changed, and new technologies were not demanded. That is why the workshop participants very soon became part of the “swamp” created by their own media. Those workshop participants who gained new knowledge and skills and had the ability to apply them, soon left for Russia or Kazakhstan where there was more demand for their abilities. Thus, local television and radio stations lost many talented directors, journalists, cameramen, and DJs. Today, those people work successfully in the media in neighboring countries and participate in the creation of the best products of Russian and Kazakh television. Most of them say they developed their skills in Kyrgyzstan but did not see any opportunities for growth,  but the neighboring countries gave them such opportunities.  

The fact that local mass media organizations do not try to raise their workers’ skill levels proves that they are unwilling to use new technologies. Media organizations are not eager to send members of their staff to free seminars organized by international organizations. They do not want to spend their own money to raise their workers’ skill levels , either.  

There is no doubt that the lack of qualified staff and  the professional crisis in the Kyrgyz mass media has been intensified by a crisis in higher education, especially in local journalism departments. There are many institutions of higher education in Kyrgyzstan that train future journalists. However, the quality of the education that they provide leaves much to be desired. Every editor-in-chief in the country has faced this problem. Very few university graduates work in the media and even those few who do cannot boast about their knowledge and skills. Obviously, Kyrgyzstan’s journalism programs do not meet the requirements of even the Kyrgyz media market. Most universities teach literature rather than journalism. The number of courses that are  really useful for future journalists is minimal. Students learn little about the legislation regulating the mass media, how to work with sources, or how to stay safe while working. Often the teachers themselves have no experience working in the media; and some of those teachers who do have work experience gained it during the Soviet era. Besides, future journalists do not get practical skills. In most cases, universities do not have the technical equipment to teach them. That is why students see cameras, microphones, studios, voice recorders and other devices only during internships or during short visits to editorial offices. 

Furthermore, Kyrgyzstan’s higher education system does not train students for such important trades as media-manager, photojournalist, cameraman, TV/radio director, news/entertainment anchor, or periodical designer. Demand for specialists in these areas is much higher than for journalists.  

Today, media NGOs are working on the problem of training future journalists. Maybe new training centers will emerge based on media NGOs’ activities, curricula and materials that they use, their technical capacity.  They could  work only with specialists who really want to improve their skills and plan to work in the media long-term.  

The current situation in the media market impedes the development of professional and corporate institutions. Mass media professionals are among the few that do not have their own trade union. Supposedly, two unions should protect their rights: the Union of Art and Culture Workers, which is a member of the Federation of Trade Unions of Kyrgyzstan; and the Independent Media Trade Union. However, in reality, neither institution deals with the problems of mass media professionals. Journalists and other editorial staff are left on their own and are unable to protect their labor rights. The absence of a trade union for media professionals hinders the introduction of collective contracts between the media owners and the workers. It also hinders the observance of editorial policy. All this makes further progress impossible for Kyrgyzstan’s mass media. In some media companies in Kyrgyzstan, the owner also acts as the editor-in-chief. This bad practice violates freedom of speech in greater extent than governmental interference in the work of the media, since it cultivates a system of internal censorship, inconsistent information policy, etc. International experience has shown that the absence of competition and equality among the participants in the media market does not allow trade unions to develop freely, and this, in turn, leads to ignorance of the rights of media professionals and violates freedom of speech and press. 

Other corporate and public organizations are uncoordinated and protect the rights of the media workers inefficiently. Since the Union of Journalists, created during the Soviet era, does not exist today, several organizations have occupied its place. Each of those organizations works on a limited set of problems. For example, the Media Representative and the Institute of the Media Representative work only on the legal and public protection of journalists’ interests in courts. The public organization “Journalists” works on safety and the monitoring of the media during elections (it also issues its own newspaper). In 2007, a new self-regulation organization was established – the Commission for the Consideration of Complaints Against the Mass Media; it was authorized to monitor the observance of professional ethics by journalists. The Association of Radio and Television of Kyrgyzstan works with the problems of local broadcast media.  

Beginning in 2007, media-related NGOs started to more or less work together. Occasionally these organizations meet and discuss their plans. There is professional electronic network that is used to discuss important problems and announce special events. However, as the example of the Television and Radio bill demonstrated, such collaboration is not sufficient. The media-related NGOs make uncoordinated efforts and have no substantial support among the media. Therefore, further consolidation is necessary. The success of that consolidation will also depend on the development of the media market. 

Absence of a clear state policy on the media, and a deep professional and human resources crisis, has meant that the quality of newspapers, TV stations and radio channels is much lower in Kyrgyzstan than in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Local media consumers often choose media products from those countries. This has happened because Kyrgyzstan’s government has not created an integrated information system that would provide information for the capital city and the regions. At the same time, Kyrgyzstan turned out to be a part of integrated information system of another state: Russia. Russia’s First Channel and RTR are broadcast across almost all of Kyrgyzstan’s territory and their programs are more popular than those of the Kyrgyz channels.  

Almost the same situation exists among radio stations. Europe Plus, Autoradio, Russian Radio and others have actually suppressed Kyrgyz entertainment radio channels with Russian language operations. Kyrgyz newspapers are in a better position. They are less dependent on Russian information. However, it must be noted that if a Kyrgyz reader has choice, he will select Russian papers like Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty, or Moskovskii Komsomolets, rather than local ones. In the magazine market, the situation is even worse. The market for local magazines, unfortunately, is in a coma. In the history of Kyrgyz magazine publishing, there has not been a single example of a magazine that has become a successful, sustainable commercial project. At the same time, the available assortment of glossy Russian magazines has grown and their consumption by Kyrgyz readers has increased. All this has been taking place in the context of economic crisis; the coming transition to digital broadcasting, printing and graphic design; and new labor relationships in the mass media.  

Another crucial problem is the criminal prosecution of journalists for libel and slander (articles 127 and 128 of the Criminal Code) and the defense of honor, dignity and business reputations through the civil process. Unfortunately, because of incomprehensible actions of Jogorku Kenesh members in 2007, articles 127 and 128 remained in the Criminal Code, despite the fact that the Parliament voted for their exclusion from the Code twice. The problem of a state tax for civil actions to defend one’s honor, dignity and business reputation has not yet been solved either. It has been proposed many times that the state tax be set at 10% of the the amount the plaintiff is suing for.  However, the Parliament has always rejected the initiative and the President never insisted on its adoption. Meanwhile, the country’s legislation still has not defined who can be considered a public official, the information about whom is of public interest. There has been a great deal of talk about the application of the Sullivan Rule in Kyrgyzstan. It requires public officials who are suing to defend their honor, dignity or business reputation to resign.  This has found no support in Kyrgyzstan. 

Last year was marked by repeated legislative attempts to give the Internet the status of a mass medium. Member of Parliament Alisher Sabirov prepared amendments to the “Mass Media” and “Information” laws. Neither bill has been adopted yet, but they could be at any moment. 

This year has been marked by the adoption the law “The Mass Media and Radio Broadcasting.” Despite the fact that the government, the Ministry of Culture and Information, and media-related NGOs asked Parliament members not to consider the bill introduced by Junusov I., Sydykova L., Tagayev R., and Jeenbekov D., it was taken up for consideration – with violations of parliamentary procedures and under unprecedented pressure. This bill will significantly weaken Kyrgyzstan’s  television and radio companies on the eve of the transition to digital broadcasting. Most broadcasting companies will not be able to comply with this law and will have to either retransmit programs from Russian or Kazakh companies or close. President Bakiyev signed the bill but authorized the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Justice to work out amendments to it. However, the amendments will not change many of the bill’s articles, for example, liquidation of public television which was supposed to be created using technical capacity and human resources of the  National TV and  Radio Company. 

The mass media situation would be better today if the existing laws and the president’s decrees were observed. For instance, in 2006, the law “Access to Information under the Authority of State Organs and the Organs of Local Self-Administration” was adopted; it took effect in the beginning of 2007. Without exception, no government organization complies with this law, despite the fact that there is a presidential decree, dated May 8, 2007, to implement it. So far, no state agency has announced its meetings or allowed public access to information centers and the press secretary has not attended any trial. The law is enforced, at most, 10-15 percent of the time. Meanwhile, if it were enforced, it would significantly improve access to information for journalists.  

Article 10 of “The Mass Media" law of the KR, which requires editions of newspapers to publish information on circulation, printing house name etc. is not implemented either. State newspapers ignore this requirement, and their actions go unpunished.  

The presidential decrees "On Privatization of State Media" and "On Some Measures Aimed at Further Improvement of Democratic Processes in the Kyrgyz Republic" are also not enforced. The first decree was to begin the process of denationalization of all state-owned newspapers, with the exception of Erkin-Too. But the decree contained an impracticable regulation, which prevented its implementation. Since then, the state has paid more attention to its media and increased their funding. It is obvious that the newspapers will not be privatized. And this means that there is no equality or competition among the participants in the media market. 

The second decree was passed immediately after the opposition demonstration in April. It ordered the government to work out amendments to the existing laws, "aimed at governmental support for the media, elimination of pressure on journalists and on the media by the state authorities, local administrations and authorities, and greater responsibility for violation of freedoms of thought, speech, press, and of free expression of thoughts and beliefs." To implement this part of the decree, a working group was created that drafted the amendments to the laws "The Mass Media," "Protection of the Professional Activities of Journalists," "Advertising,” "State Tax” and to the Criminal and Civil codes. The amendments were sent to the President’s administration and, since then, there has been no news about them. 

State policy should protect journalists from hooligans and criminals. The year of 2007 was a dark one for local journalism. Last year, according to various sources, there were 26 to 31 attacks on the media professionals. In 2007, a journalist was murdered for the first time in our history. It can be said with a large degree of certainty that Alisher Saipov paid for his professional activities with his life. In the same year, for the first time in history of Kyrgyzstan, two journalists - Kairat Birimkulov and Turat Bektenov - left the country and were given the status of political refugees because of their professional activities. However, investigation of none of these cases of assault or murder brought results, not to mention court decisions. It is obvious that the environment has become very dangerous for journalists. This aggressiveness toward media professionals manifested on March 24, 2005, when "revolutionaries" attacked, beat and robbed Kyrgyz and foreign journalists. Since then, the practice of using force against journalists has become popular. The authorities, unfortunately, have taken no action to stop this dangerous tradition.  

Moreover, 2008 was marked by significant pressure on the media. This resulted in litigation against the newspapers of De-facto and Alibi. A criminal case of "false denunciation" was instituted against the editor-in-chief of De facto. This is a new invention not only for Kyrgyzstan, but also for the entire post-Soviet space.  

In all those actions, a distorted understanding of the term "objectivity" has been used. The state authorities are trying to interpret "objectivity," as simple statement of the facts without any comments and criticism. As a result, "objectivity" has become a criterion for repressive measures against all genres and types of journalism.  

Television is one of the most backward sectors of Kyrgyzstan’s media market. During the country’s independence, there were two periods of recovery for television: 1991-1993 and 1998-2000. During both periods, positive processes quickly sank in the routine problems of television; a lack of money and technology, the weakness of the advertising market and the local media’s inability to compete with Russian TV channels also played their roles. At that time, there were plenty of young, active, creative people in the country who could create original national television. However, those people were not destined to realize their potential here in Kyrgyzstan. Most of them are working for television companies in Russia and Kazakhstan today.  

One of the factors negatively affecting the development of the national television sector are the unlimited broadcasts of Russian First Channel and RTR across the country. Kyrgyzstan is one of the few CIS countries where this is possible, due to intergovernmental agreements. The broadcast of Russian TV stations in Kyrgyzstan is certainly beneficial to the consumer, but at the same time, it creates a major challenge for local TV channels. Our country does not have the money and creative people to reach the level of the Russian giants. Therefore, the Kyrgyz channels very quickly adopted a type of broadcasting in which local TV channels retransmit the programs of Russian or Kazakh TV channels, inserting small segments of their own broadcasting, which traditionally include news in two (rarely three) languages, one talk show (in two or three languages), and unlicensed screenings of movies.  

The new law "Television and Radio Broadcasting" demands that Kyrgyz channels increase their original broadcasting to 60% of their daily volume of broadcasting. Only three or four channels can do it. All the rest will be forced to either move to full retransmission of foreign channels or close. This could be a major blow to the nation’s information security. Many of the country’s regions have one or two private TV companies. They broadcast only 10% original programming and this is the best they can do. Consequently, if they close or switch to full retransmission, the regions will lose their sources of local information. The country’s main TV channel, KTR, will not be able to provide the whole population of the country with information, since it does not broadcast to all of the country’s territory. Some regions, due to technical problems, have very bad reception of KTR or do not receive it at all. Besides, people distrust the information provided by KTR. It is a great pity that Kyrgyzstan has not been able to transform KRT into public television. 

One of the biggest problems with national television is its content. Most of the programming that is not simply being retransmitted from other stations consists of screenings of pirated copies of movies. The channels use tapes, DVDs, and CDs that clearly indicate that the movies are intended only for home viewing and should not be broadcast on television. But the authorities ignore this fact. The rest of the airtime is filled with original productions - news, talk shows, entertainment programs. Production studios do not show their programs on TV channels. In the late 1990s and early 2000s there was some increase in the number of production studios but local TV channels were reluctant to pay for the programs they created. Instead, TV channels demanded money for showing their programs. As a result, the number of production studios diminished. Perhaps the new requirements of the law "Television and Radio Broadcasting" for showing original programming will force TV channels to change their attitudes toward the production studios.  

However, the efforts to create more original content will substantially weaken local TV channels on the eve of the process of transition to digital broadcasting. In 2012, our country must begin the transition to digital broadcasting and in 2015 analogue broadcasting throughout almost all of the country will have to stop. The transition to digital broadcasting will require TV channels to spend a great deal of money for renovations. According to the calculations of some TV station owners, on average, a TV station will have to spend around $1 million on the transition. Most likely, many regional broadcasters will not be able to make the transition and will be forced to close.  

Before the transition to digital broadcasting, the allocation of frequencies remains a significant problem. Their distribution has not taken place for nearly six years. According to various sources, from 40 to 60 TV and radio companies have lined up to receive frequencies. Allocation of frequencies was one of the mechanisms limiting public access to information. Since the previous rules of frequency allocation were annulled, there is no legislation that regulates this process.  

In general, the prospects of local TV channels are unclear. The process of the enforcement of the "Television and Radio Broadcasting" law, together with the process of transition to digital broadcasting, will significantly reduce the number of broadcasters. Perhaps after 2015 the market will adapt and there will be a new television boom. However, after 2015 it will be very difficult to broadcast because digital television does not have commercials. If local TV channels find ways to maintain their own broadcasting economically, they will remain on the market. The question is which segment of the market they will occupy.  

The situation in the radio market is, in general, similar to that of the television market. Local information and entertainment radio stations face two major problems: implementation of the new "Television and Radio Broadcasting" law; and the transition to digital broadcasting. However, radio production is much cheaper than television. Therefore, radio stations have more opportunities to solve both problems. 

In the meantime, one may state that Russian entertainment radio stations have larger audiences than Kyrgyz radio stations that broadcast in Kyrgyz language. Today there are only two entertainment radio stations in Kyrgyz language in the Bishkek market; there are nearly five times as many Russian language entertainment radio stations. In the information radio market, Kyrgyz language programs play a big role.

The prospects for domestic radio largely depend on how the transition to digital broadcasting is implemented. The transition would require replacing the vast majority of radio receivers, since they are not suitable for digital broadcasting.  

Newspapers have traditionally been the most successful type of media in the country. It should be remembered that in the USSR, only Kyrgyz-language journalists were trained. Therefore, since the early days of the country's independence, the newspaper market has developed much faster and more successfully than the television and radio markets. Today, newspapers remain one of the main sources of information for the population.  

However, newspaper journalism has not escaped stagnation. Only in the last two or three years has the newspaper market experienced some dynamism. But the economic crisis and rising prices for food and utilities led to much lower circulation for many newspapers.  

Nevertheless, newspapers, unlike television and radio, do not have to think about making the transition to digital broadcasting and filling airtime with original broadcasting. That makes the press more competitive in the media market. In addition, newspapers remain one of the main recipients of advertising revenues. The volume of advertising in the newspaper market is much greater than in the radio or television markets.  Distribution remains a significant problem for newspapers.

Distribution through the state enterprise Kyrgyzpochtasy (Kyrgyz Post) brings only headaches. But the number of private distributors is too small to serve the whole country. For this reason, newspapers from Bishkek have trouble reaching distant districts. Newspapers arrive several days late to some communities. Building a color-printing house in the southern part of the country could solve this problem. Then a part of the circulation of Bishkek newspapers could be printed there. This would accelerate the process of newspaper delivery in the regions and reduce the price of print products.  

Taking into account all the current trends, one should admit that after the events of 2005 Kyrgyzstan’s media unable to move to a higher level .  

Current authorities have not yet learned to benefit from working with information without “tightening the screws.” Therefore, any event could cause an information crisis in the country. An example of that could be the story with the President’s illness. The attempt to hide his illness and treatment led to a situation when the entire country was filled with the most incredible rumors on this topic.  

Secondly, the authorities’ current actions will not kill journalism and will not destroy the opposition media. Our history has proved many times that after the brutal "tightening of the screws" there have always been periods of "thaw," which brought unrestricted freedom to the media that, in its turn brought another period of “tightening of the screws.” It is a pity that the authorities and journalists, from one period to another, waste their energy fighting each other and do not want to become business partners. Thus, we all waste time and energy and lose capable people. The Kyrgyz media constantly move forward, but make no progress. 

Alexander Kulinskiy, an independent media expert