The VII Eurasian Media Forum started in Almaty on 25 April 2008.

Leading journalists, political experts and politicians are taking part in the Forum. Among them are Mr. S. Kerim, President of the 62-nd UN General Assembly, the well-known American political expert Z. Brzezinski, producer of Al Jazeera TV channel, Riz Khan, President of the Efficient Politics Foundation, G. Pavlovsky, Russian TV commentator M. Leontiev and many others.

Dariga Nazarbayeva, Chair of the Forum said that the main focus will be made on the most important international events, and their coverage by the media around the globe. The Forum’s agenda contains many topical issues, such as the new coil of confrontation between the West and Russia, the problem of separatism in the light of proclamation of independence of Kosovo, the role of the media in conditions of bilingualism and the confrontation of civilizations, the phenomenon of the fast economic growth in China, risk factors for the CIS countries, etc.

Tajikistan is represented by the Tajik ambassador to Kazakhstan Bakhrom Kholnazarov, head of the analytical center Sharq Saodat Olimova and editor of the Asia Plus weekly Umed Babakhanov.

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Foreign Ministries of the countries members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have adopted a media plan to cover the forthcoming summit of leaders of the SCO States. The summit is scheduled for August 2008.

The SCO Secretariat has also discussed a wide range of issues related with strengthening of information activities of the Organization and interrelations among press services of the SCO member-countries’ Foreign Ministries.

Currently, SCO consists of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China.

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During the last three days, the Tajik media holding Oriyono Media has sent three official letters addressed to the State enterprise Tajikteleradiocom. Rustam Joni, director of the media holding expresses concern over the termination of broadcasting of Imrouz, a private radio station belonging to Oriyono Media.

Rustam Joni told the Asia Plus news agency that thousands of radio listeners do not have access to information, and the radio company is bearing losses – because of negligence of Tajikteleradiocom, the State communication facility in charge of dissemination of radio frequencies.

“Nonfulfillment of duties has led to violation of Tajikistan’s Law on “Printing and other mass media”, — said Joni. — In case of failure to renew broadcasting of Radio Imrouz, we reserve the right to file a charge against the enterprise. This muddle causes ridiculous rumors and allegations among the population regarding the silence of our radio station”.

In the meantime, Faizullo Salikhov, technical director of Tajikteleradiocom told Asia Plus that the allegations of the founder of Imrouz regarding delinquencies by the State agency are ungrounded.

Radio Imrouz founded in 2007, broadcasts at the frequency of 107,6 FM in Dushanbe, Kurgan-Tube, Tursunzade and Vakhdat.

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Olim Salimzoda, one of the designers of the draft law and representative of the government said that the new law is expected to become a new step towards democracy.

Salimzoda considers that the new law guarantees transparency of actions among the government institutions and local authorities. “Any citizen has the right to approach any State institution verbally or in written form requesting information in any format – verbal, electronic, audio or visual”, — added the parliamentarian.

The new law regulates the mechanism of receipt of information establishing terms of provision. It is compatible with the laws “On printing and other mass media”, “On Information”, “On informatization” and “On television and radio”.

According to the new law, the applicant must receive any officially requested information from authorities within one week, unless additional documents are needed for preparation of requested data. I such a case, information must be provided to the applicant within one month. In case of impossibility to present requested data, the State institution must clearly explain the reasons.

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The Union of Journalists of Tajikistan, NANSMIT, TajANESMI, the Media Alliance of Tajikistan and representatives of other leading mass media express their concern about the fact of assault upon Azam Nasretdinov, editor of the Radio Vatan information service on 2 April 2008.

The media community of Tajikistan has approached the law enforcement agencies with a request to conduct an immediate and comprehensive investigation of the incident and to inform the media about the results. On 11 April, the media agencies disseminated a joint statement addressed to the authorities and public at large.

The statement says that the journalist was assaulted on 2 April about 10 p.m., near the Diyor disco club. According to witnesses, three club guards attacked Nasretdinov without any obvious reason. For the time being, the journalist is at the National Medical Center with a diagnosis “compound bilateral fracture of jaw and concussion of brain”.

In their statement, the media organizations have also expressed their concern about the private radio station “Imrouz” that has not been broadcasting since 8 April 2008.

Union of Journalists
NANSMIT
TajANESMI
Media Alliance of Tajikistan

Tajikistan is rated the 98-th in the Global Economic Forum’s list of information technologies and infrastructures.

The Global Economic Forum’s report summarized data on 127 countries around the globe. The IT development level was evaluated by the criteria of readiness to use new information technologies by population at large, enterprises and authorities.

The Top-10 includes Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Singapore, Finland, Netherlands, Island, South Korea and Norway. South Korea proved to be the most successful among these countries; since 2006 it has gained ten points; and the USA that is currently at the third position in Top-10.

As for the post-Soviet republics, Estonia has the 20-th position; Lithuania – 33-rd; Latvia – 44-th; Azerbaijan – 67-th; the Ukraine – 70-th; Kazakhstan – 71-st; Russia – 72-nd; Georgia – 91-st; Moldova – 96-th; Tajikistan – 98-th; Armenia – 106-th; Kyrgyzstan – 114-th.

The rating is closed by Chad, 127-th position. Source: www.newsru.com with a reference to The Washington Profile.

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Radio “Imrouz” (“Today”) has been silent for several days. The founder of this radio company is the media holding “Oriyono Media”. Leaders of the media holding refer to some technical problems.

Rustami Joni, director general of the media holding told the Asia Plus news agency that since 8 April they cannot broadcast. “We currently negotiate with the relevant agencies, in particular, with the State enterprise “Teleradiocom”, which is in charge of technical support”, — said Joni.

According to unofficial sources, the radio company has recently received a letter from the State Committee on Television and Radio under the government containing promises to resolve the problem during 24 hours. However, “Teleradiocom” denies such promises referring to the fact that “Imrouz” is a private enterprise, and it has no affiliation to “Teleradiocom”.

Private radio company “Imrouz” commenced broadcasting in Dushanbe on 9 August 2007.

Asia Plus

On 10 April, quarterly press conferences started in Khatlon province of Tajikistan. The press conferences are being held by heads of local authorities , enterprises and government institutions.

Mayor of Kurgan-Tube, I. Zoirov called up the media to cooperate with municipal authorities while covering social problems in the city.

For their part, journalists promised the mayor to help in establishing a new press center under the municipality where they would receive timely and reliable information.

NANSMIT Monitoring Service

A public organization called “Bonuvoni Fardo” implementing a project on access to information in Khatlon province, conducts seminars and publishes a magazine “Nigikhi Bonuvon” (Women’s View) in Tajik and Uzbek languages.

A correspondent of the NANSMIT Monitoring Service reports from Khatlon that the Bonuvoni Fardo publishes its magazine regularly, once a month. This outlet is very popular among the local audience, whereas the Shaartouz district newspaper financed from the State budget is published only once in a while.

NANSMIT Monitoring Service

The first issue of a public newspaper “Bomdod” was published in Khatlon. Publication was terminated in November 2007 in view of financial problems.

A correspondent of NANSMIT in Kurgan-Tube reported that the publication of Bomdod is supported by the OSCE Center in Dushanbe. The weekly newspaper has a circulation of 1,500 copies.

NANSMIT Monitoring Service