On November 21, IWPR Tajikistan organized an expert meeting on the topic of status of media in the country.
18 people, including leading Tajik journalists, media staff, management and leadership, participants of cabar.asia School for Young Analysts, took part in the discussion.
IWPR Tajikistan Program Coordinator Dmitry Zavialov started the discussion by stating that IWPR-conducted studies revealed an ambiguous state of Tajik media: the respondents of the study noted that the media of the country loses its role of the fourth branch of power. Moreover, the situation with the freedom of press was criticized in a number of recent reports by international non-governmental organizations. IWPR Tajikistan Program Manager Lola Olimova presented the aim of the discussion – to crystalize the root causes of the observed trends, provide a prognosis and try to come up with a solution to the existing problems.
Download “The status of media and the role of social media in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan” (ENG/RUS)
The Chairman of the National Independent Media Association Nuriddin Karshiboev highlighted that for a long time, one cannot talk about media being a forth power in Tajikistan. It is necessary to bear in mind the drastic difference between the state-run and independent media. He characterized the current state of independent media in the country as “catastrophic”; most of the meeting participants agreed with him. According to him, the state media rely on a broad support from the government, while the independent media “act as poor beggars”, as “only a few donors wish to work with media and support them”.
Karshiboev also noted it is sad that fact-checking, the “ABC” of a journalist, is treated by the local journalists as a new phenomenon in journalism.
Commenting on a finding of IWPR study that Tajik journalists use social media as a source of information, Khurshed Atovullo, the Head of the Centre for Journalistic Investigations, said this is caused by the difficulties in accessing information: it is difficult for the journalists to obtain it, and the very process of requesting information from the state bodies can last weeks. Nevertheless, many Tajik journalists do not turn away from following the proper procedures and work in accordance with the legal framework.
The journalist and analyst Nurali Davlatov underlined that the situation with printed independent media is unfortunate, as some editorials are staffed with only one person instead of the teams of 16 journalists. “This man is an editor, correspondent, and anything else he can be”, – he said.
His colleague Khilvatshohi Mahmud predicted that in 2020, there will be no independent printed media left in Tajikistan. “Even now, the circulation of the most of Tajik newspapers is not more than 1500. The journalism loses its role in a society,” he said.
Yokub Khalimov, participant of cabar.asia Media School, said the situation in other media is not better. He underscored the poor quality of journalists’ trainings, which, he thinks, leads to the further worsening of the situation with media and decrease of professionalism among the journalists.
“Most donors teach journalists new methods, but they forget about the basics of journalism. This significantly reduces the level of professionalism among the journalists. There are no new, outstanding names among this army of trained journalists”, he said.
The meeting participants agreed that one of the ways to address this problem is to review the educational programs for the students of journalism departments. Now, the rules require prospective students to pass the exams in the National Testing Centre to enter the university, which often prevents the talented people from entering the journalism departments. Previously, the entrance exams for the prospective students included creativity competition, which is no longer required.
Responding to the question of Lola Olimova on the competitiveness of Tajik journalists, most of the meeting participants agreed that majority of Tajik journalists are not capable to withstand the international competition. Nuriddin Karshiboev stated that one of the reasons for it is limited knowledge of languages, especially Russian and English; this, in his mind, prevents Tajik journalists from working beyond the Tajik media sphere.
Guldastasho Alibakhshov, participant of cabar.asia School of Analytical Journalism, explained that Tajik media cannot compete with social networks as the latter provide population with information faster. He stressed that market forces work in the sphere of information provision, the “demand” for the unverified information shapes the “supply” of the fake news in social media.
Media consultant Nabi Yusupov highlighted that at the moment, the media of Tajikistan do not have the power they used to have in the past.
“Roghun was built only because the journalists “pushed” this topic and wrote about it”, – stated Yusupov describing the previous capabilities of Tajik journalists.
He noted that “the media lost position due to Internet popularization in the country”; with rare exceptions, media cannot earn enough using their websites to support their activities.
Even though the journalists could not come up with an exact formula of panacea for the problems of Tajik media, the meeting had a number of results. The journalists concluded that reforms of the education system, establishment of close cooperation between media and state authorities, and improvement of the journalists’ skills can significantly improve the sphere of journalism in Tajikistan.