Media censorship ahead of parliamentary poll

Government-supported and independent media have received strict instructions on how to cover parliamentary elections scheduled for 27 February, journalists in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, told IRIN. Glowing coverage of pro-government candidates is mandatory, while the rest should receive minimum media attention, according to the directives. "We report the way the presidential administration has demanded. Anybody interested in losing their jobs just needs to provide impartial analysis of the situation [parliamentary elections]," the chief editor of a government-controlled mass media outlet, said on condition of anonymity. "There is no unbiased mass media. All of them report on pro-government candidates and very few about opposition candidates. Another problem is that [in] most of the newspapers disseminated in Bishkek and its outskirts, information is hidden from [the] public," Almaz Asipjanov, a 25-year-old Bishkek resident, told IRIN. Once praised as an island of democracy in the region, Kyrgyzstan began emulating its authoritarian neighbour states after 1995. Presidential elections in 2000 were described by many international bodies as neither free nor fair. Since then, international media watchdog groups have repeatedly warned that freedom of speech has been under threat. "By the beginning of 2005 all nationwide electronic mass media is controlled or owned by the family of the President [Askar Akaev]. The last independent TV station, Pyramid, was bought by the president's son-in-law recently, while independent newspapers trying to provide balanced reporting of political issues are constantly pressured to close," Kuban Mambetaliev, chairman of the local media NGO, 'Journalists', told IRIN. One independent newspaper, MSN, was founded by the former editorial staff of the leading national daily ‘Vecherniy Bishkek’ after a hostile take-over by the president's son-in-law prior to parliamentary elections in 2000. MSN, as well as the dwindling number of media outlets that criticised the authorities, has been subjected to governmental pressure and forced into temporary closure on a number of occasions. Things have worsened in recent months following the peaceful transition to democracy in Georgia and Ukraine. Journalists and editors are hounded and often accused of subversion and treachery. The walls of the block of flats where chief editor of the opposition newspaper 'Respublica' Zamira Sydykova lives have been daubed with orange dollar signs and insulting words accusing her of trying to "import revolution" to the Kyrgyz Republic. The government's attitude to the press and broadcast media has been condemned by the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society (CDCS) an NGO which unites more than 170 other NGOs and 120 long-term local election observers. "The government's action constitutes illegal interference in the mass media and amounts to a serious attempt to restrict freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan," the organisation said in a statement recently. "When covering election-related events, the state media, including KTR TV, newspapers such as Erkin Too, Slovo Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyz Tuusu, absolutely disrespect the principle of impartiality. This principle allows for equal opportunity to speak for all parties contesting the poll. State-owned mass media is used as a tool just for promoting pro-government candidates," the head of the CDCS, Edil Baisalov, told IRIN. When contacted by IRIN, editors of state media outlets declined to comment on the current media situation in the country. Mambetaliev said the problem is also one of ownership and political allegiance. "The owner of KOORT TV station is affiliated to the president, so it will never report political issues in an impartial way like Azattyk radio does - the only mass media in Kyrgyzstan that does not depend on anyone," said Mambetaliev. A new national TV station, NTS, has postponed its launch several times and observers say the station is under political pressure to wait until after the elections to open. Director of NTS, Andrey Tsvetkov, was unavailable for comment about its plans and what kind of political pressure had been brought to bear. Some international media watchdogs operating in Kyrgyzstan are doing what they can to monitor the situation in the run-up to the vote later this month. "Together with CIMERA we will be doing media monitoring funded by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE]. It will cover 150 print publications and 34 electronic mass media of the Kyrgyz Republic," country director of Internews-Kyrgyzstan, Nicolas Ebnother, told IRIN. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Election Observation Mission began keeping a watch over the pre-election media situation in Kyrgyzstan on 17 January. Media Analyst Ivan Godarsky told IRIN preliminary results would be presented in mid-February.