The paper the area, which is vulnerable to terrorism, is being used as a "bridgehead for US media attacks on Uzbekistan". Meanwhile, Russian media in Kyrgyzstan are losing ground to their US and pro-US rivals in the light of a "secret media attack" launched by the Kyrgyz state against Russia.

The following is the text of the article entitled "The USA and Russia: media war in Kyrgyzstan" published by Belyy Parokhod on 13 November 2007; subheadings inserted editorially; ellipses as published throughout:

At first glance, the Russian-language, or to be more precise, the Russian press in Kyrgyzstan, is doing well, however, the real situation is not so cloudless. The influence of the Russian press is melting away before our very eyes day by day. Over the recent six months, their position, gained by many years of hard work, has been lost. Now, with regard to the foreign press in Kyrgyzstan, the USA has become the star performer.

Russian press in Kyrgyzstan

During all the years of [Kyrgyzstan’s] independence, the Russian press in Kyrgyzstan has seen no particular problems. Russian newspapers and TV channels have been and are continuing to work. However, their influence has been slowly dwindling for two reasons: their own stagnation and more vigorous efforts by the US and the "pro-US" press.

Four Russian newspapers with local supplements are published in Kyrgyzstan: Komosomolskaya Pravda, AiF [Argumenty i Fakty], Moskovskiy Komsomolets and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The first three newspapers are not run by the state. They build their relations with their Kyrgyz partners on a commercial basis. For example, Moskovskiy Komsomolets has signed quite a standard contract with its Kyrgyz partner, the same as with its regional partners in Russia: fixed payment for the brand and materials plus half of the advertising money. Komsomolskaya Pravda and Argumenty i Fakty appear to be working in line with a similar scenario. The total print run of these newspapers is under 40,000 copies, whereas, for example, the Vecherniy Bishkek daily has a print run of 30,000 copies (the largest one in the country). As far as Rossiyskaya Gazeta and its Central Asian page are concerned, it does not enjoy popularity because it is absolutely toothless.

The most interesting thing is that articles in Kyrgyz editions may not necessarily reflect the position of the Moscow editorial boards but may even be completely anti-Russian (except Rossiyskaya Gazeta where articles are checked by Moscow censors). This also applies to TV channels. Channel One and Rossiya TV channels do not air local news. However, for example, the [Kyrgyz] Pyramida TV channel, which rebroadcasts [Russian] Ren-TV, has its own news service which does not seek guidance from Moscow, but on the contrary [follows its own agenda].

Radio Liberty

Someone who visits Bishkek for the first time may think that the Russian press is predominant there. However, this is only an illusion. Quite a lot among the indigenous masses, largely those who do not live in the capital city and who do not use the Russian-language press, prefer the press in the native [Kyrgyz] language. Incidentally, there are quite a few Kyrgyz-language newspapers which are financed through Western grants, just as there are many similar Russian-language ones.

There is no need to prove that central Russian news programmes and TV shows are not aimed specifically at Kyrgyz consumers. However, the USA is successfully filling this gap. Radio Liberty, which broadcasts exclusively in Kyrgyz and which played a certain part in the success of the "Tulip revolution", is in the vanguard of the media. In contrast to other radio stations and TV channels, Radio Liberty has penetrated every corner of this mountainous country. For example, without an opportunity to launch its own broadcasting in Dzhalal-Abad Region, the radio station has bought airtime from a local commercial TV company and is now on air for two hours every morning. A TV-viewer-listener simultaneously listens to a news programme and watches a specific film. In addition, Radio Liberty has its own young people’s live talk show on the state-run Channel One.

Voice of America and Internews Network

The Voice of America radio station has gone even further than everyone else. For example, in southern Kyrgyzstan its Ob’ektiv [camera lens] TV programme is shown on Pyramida TV channel from Bishkek, regional Keremet TV company and the second state TV channel El TR [Country TV Radio commpany]. This means people can watch the same programme three times a day. All these airtime slots clash with the schedule of the central Russian TV channels’ main news bulletins. At the same time it is worth noting that the Voice of America TV programme has a slot called "The Central Asian Forum". This clearly means specific targeting aimed at the local TV audience. However, the reports may have been filmed not in Central Asia. For example, not long ago there was a programme about reforming Islam which was filmed in the USA and Egypt. Most of the footage relates to the region one way or another, and is either aimed at or has been filmed in the region.

It is worth mentioning such a TV programme as Otkrytaya Aziya [Open Asia] broadcast throughout the region. It is produced by local offices of the US Internews Network organization, where local journalists work under the supervision of Western managers and editors.

Springboard for media attack on Uzbekistan

Recently all these "US" media outlets started to show interest in the southern regions neighbouring Uzbekistan. The neighbourhood is quite close. It is sufficient to say that a local bus service takes maximum half an hour to reach the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border from Kyryzstan’s southern capital city Osh.

The interest of the USA is primarily linked to the fact that Uzbekistan is continuing to ban US and pro-US NGOs from the country (literally a couple of months ago the Human Rights Watch organization had to leave Uzbekistan for good). Most of staff members of these organizations have found refuge in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. Almost all of them speak Uzbek; many of them are ethnic Chinese, Koreans and Turks. Obviously, their chiefs think that their anthropological affinity with the locals facilitates much closer contacts.

However, this was not an ordinary move from one country to another. Factually, three southern regions of Kyrgyzstan turned into a kind of information springboard for media attacks on the eastern regions (Namangan, Andijon and Farghona regions) of Uzbekistan which are the most problematic ones with regard to the activities of Islamic and terrorist forces. The ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan who have always been dissatisfied with the ethnic policies of the authorities, are not forgotten either.

One also needs to add that numerous US and international organizations are working with [local] journalists quite actively, providing them with all kinds of trainings, seminars and voyages abroad. Most Uzbek journalists cannot find jobs in state media outlets. Many of them earn their living through grants or jobs in newspapers published on money received from grants.

All these newspapers and journals are quite legally published in Kyrgyzstan on money from US and international organizations. During the "[ousted president Askar] Akayev era" a grant was given to only one Uzbek newspaper, to be more precise, it was a Kyrgyz-language newspaper, and the money was allocated to its Uzbek-language version. The money was given to pay for translating the articles. Now, the US and international organizations are quite actively supplying the opposition media with money in the south of the country. The Ob’ektiv TV programme of the Voice of America is on air in Uzbek, and the neighbouring country cannot help disliking the idea. Obviously this TV programme is broadcast on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, but it is aimed primarily against Uzbekistan.

US Freedom House slated over opposition papers

In addition, the US Freedom House organization, which has departments in all the countries of the region, except Turkmenistan, and which is in charge of coordinating activities of other US organizations, is worth mentioning. It publishes its own newspaper Golos Svobody [The Voice of Freedom], which is circulated free of charge.

A well-known historian, the author of the scandalous book "The state coup on 24 March 2005 in Kyrgyzstan", professor of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, Aleksandr Knyazev, has commented on the situation as follows: "One might recall how the director of the projects of the Freedom House, Michael Stone, said cynically soon after the 2005 March events: ’When I say the task has been fulfilled, it is by no means connected with the revolution. We have published newspapers. Our intention was to assist in developing the media, but not to start a revolution.’" The Media Support Centre, created as one of the Freedom House priority projects, is the very centre where all the opposition newspapers and leaflets in Kyrgyzstan have been published since December 2002.

At the same time the Media Support Centre put deliberate efforts into gaining ground in the printing sector of Kazakhstan. A number of Kazakh editorial offices received price lists of the printing house. There were precedents for producing pro-opposition printed matter for Tajikistan and Kazakhstan as well. Thus, copies of Ruzi Nav [New Day, in Tajik] newspaper, published in a Bishkek printing house of the Media Support Centre, were arrested at Dushanbe [the Tajik capital] airport on 4 November 2004. The printing house published all the literature for the opposition organizations in the Central Asian region, instructions "on fighting dictators", and containing "useful consultations" on organizing hunger strikes and civil disobedience actions, which were successfully used in Serbia, Georgia and in Ukraine.

It is wrong to say that all these activities are only an element of a propaganda war between the USA and Russia. This is, in the first place, an element of exporting democracy by the USA, which de jure is a case of interfering in the domestic affairs of the regional states..."

Propaganda against Russia orchestrated by Kyrgyz state

The Americans feel quite relaxed in Kyrgyzstan because they enjoy the support on the part of the state, without which it would have been impossible, for example, to air TV programmes of Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Adakhan Madumarov, the state secretary and also the media "curator", who is known for his nationalistic views, and who was appointed to these posts by President [Kurmanbek] Bakiyev, is making every effort to open a green street specifically for the US and pro-US media. Immediately after he got an opportunity to implement control over the mass media, he made attempts to close down three southern TV companies broadcasting in Uzbek and banned a documentary TV series about China, funded by the Chinese embassy, from the state-run Channel One TV. In addition,quite recently Channel One began to foment the topic of the alleged Russian genocide of the Kyrgyzs in the 1916 rebellion. It did not say "the Russian authorities" or "the Russian troops", but "the Russians". This sensitive subject would not have become popular on the state TV without the patronage of the state secretary.

Russia losing in face of US "media invasion"

... One can say that for the time being there is a kind of equilibrium in the secret Russian-US information confrontation in Kyrgyzstan. However, if the USA continues mastering the media space of Kyrgyzstan, which is turning into a springboard for an information invasion into other Central Asian countries, as actively as it is now, soon one will be able to speak of Russia’s complete defeat on this front...

Next, elections to the Kyrgyz parliament will come, and the presidential election is not too far away. The USA’s activity on the media front is explainable only from this position. Russia has realistic chances to prepare for these events with all its armour, and at the same time not to spend as huge funds as the USA. For now, it seems an even score; however, one side is gaining the upper hand.

Source: BBC Monitoring Media