edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Part II Kyrgyzstan: Advancements in a Media-Friendly Environmentcountry 18 ); one of these, Kloop Media, also runs a journalismschool. Kloop’s news website is available in Kyrgyz, Russianand English. This is a well-developed and reasonably wellfundedplatform, a private initiative, which we will look at inmore detail later.Only two of Kyrgyzstan’s TV stations have a nationwidereach, but owing to the mountainous nature of large parts ofthe country, more remote areas are often cut off even fromthese providers. The same applies to radio, of which again,only a handful have national reach. Newspapers, especially regionaloutlets, are more numerous, but national newspaperswill often reach more rural areas in remoter parts of the countrywith a two-week delay:“Any shortage of information in southern Kyrgyzstan andother remote areas of the country is not unique to a specificethnic group, but is rather a sign of poor general access to television,radio, and print media.” 19Russian television is more widely available 20 – and also oftenmore popular, particularly with urban populations, probablypartly because of the greater variety of entertainmentprograms on offer, although OTRK holds the floor for newsprograms. In urban centers (Bishkek and Osh), cable televisionnetworks offer access to a variety of foreign channel options,whilst in rural areas people tend to resort to satellite if they canafford it. Access to foreign media “is not restricted by anythingother than the financial means of the customer.” 21the only children’s channel in the country. A culture channel isin the planning phase. All of these channels broadcast in Kyrgyzand in Russian – the spread of the two languages acrossthe channels appears to be fairly random. The BBC providesnews segments in English for re-broadcast on the main channel.At OTRK, there are five radio channels, and these broadcastin Kyrgyz, Russian and English. Birinchi Radio (First Radio), describedon the company website as All Talk Radio or “radio ‘everything,’”broadcasts two hours of English news a day. Thereis also a tiny segment with the optimistic name of FriendshipRadio (Radio Dostuk). This, at the moment purely an onlinepresence, puts together programs in most of the minority languagespresent in the Kyrgyz Republic, although surprisinglynot in the language of the largest minority, the Uzbeks. 22 Wewill come back to this in a later part of the chapter.Both ElTR and OTRK, and Yntymak are subject to the regulationof the Supervisory Board, which was set up during thereforms of 2010 specifically to watch over the transformationto PSM. Members are selected by a parliamentary Committeefor Education, Science, Culture and Sport. The Board consists of15 members, five from government, five from parliament andfive from the civil society. Its authority as laid down in the constitutionis considerable, but is in actual fact tempered by theinfluence still wielded by the state. 23 Many media experts andobservers hold it to be “neither balanced nor independent.” 24Obschestvennaya Tele-Radio Kompaniya (OTRK)The Kyrgyz public service media sector, although in its infancy,is slightly more varied than in many other countries at thisstage of development, where one state broadcaster has beenor is being transformed. In Kyrgyzstan, dominant in the sectoris the main, formerly state, broadcaster OTRK. Yntymak, (fulltitle Public Regional TV and Radio Company) is purely radioand was established in the south as an integration initiative.There is also the public television company ElTR – which weinclude here on the periphery as an important factor in anyanalysis of the Kyrgyz PSM sector. Established in 2005 byPresident Bakiyev as a public broadcasting company with theaim of contributing to the harmony of society, the station isgoverned by its own bylaw and fully owned by the state. It is asmall outfit (about 260 employees) which started out in Osh inthe south but has now also established offices and studios inBishkek (premises are partially leased from a university) andintends to broaden its audience base to include the entire Republic.There is at present just the one channel but plans arebeing made to establish a second one, also in the south.The main focus here, however, has to be the dominant nationalbroadcaster: OTRK (sometimes known under varyingacronyms such as KPRT - Kyrgyz Public Radio and TV – KPBC, orPRTC, whereby OTRK is the most recognisable and will be usedhere throughout) has 3 TV channels, two of which are newlyestablishedspecialist channels – a music and a kids’ channel,7Bertelsmann Foundation 2012.8Trilling, March 31, 2014.9TI 2013.10Bertelsmann Foundation 2014.11Reporters Without Borders 2014a.12Bertelsmann Foundation 2014.13“Over the past year, the opportu -nities for Kyrgyz citizens to obtainnews and information in theUzbek language have improvedmarkedly, with an Uzbeklanguageversion of the KyrgyzlanguageAalam broadcast onOTRK’s Yntymak channel, alongwith news releases and programsin Uzbek.” See IREX 2014, 260.14IREX 2013, 268.15IREX 2014, 250.16Ibid.17Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty2013.18Bektour Iskender, Kloop MediaFoundation ( founding member) –NB this figure reflects accesscapability throughout thecountry, largely boosted by mobilephone networks. Actual digitalliteracy figures are much lower.19Freedom House 2013c.20Freedom House 2014.21IREX 2013, 266.22http://dostuk.ktrk.kg/ky23Employee International RelationsDept., OTRK – does not wish tobe named.24IREX 2014, 253.Edition DW Akademie In the Service of the Public 55