As its economy sinks and social tensions portend a summer of discontent, several mass media outlets in Tajikistan are busy identifying culprits for the Central Asian nation’s problems. By all appearances, the chief scapegoat is shaping up to be Russia. Local newspapers recently have blamed the Kremlin for everything from stoking the 1992-97 civil war in Tajikistan to drug trafficking, economic woes and even a possible future coup d’etat.

Because Tajikistan’s notoriously weak media is widely seen as tightly controlled by the authorities, analysts are wondering what or who is behind the latest round of hyperbolic editorializing. Such sensational reports must have a prominent backer, Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda suggested in an April 6 commentary.

Some analysts in Dushanbe agree. «If the authorities do not react to anti-Russian publications, it looks like these are planted articles written by hack writers. The order comes from certain politicians pursuing their own interests,» said Lidia Isamova, a noted Tajik journalist.

Nuriddin Karshibaev, chairman of the Tajik National Association of Independent Media (NANSMIT), an agency comprising more than 30 non-state print and electronic outlets, agrees that the quality of some recent reports has been poor, but points out that journalism is slowly opening up in Tajikistan. The recent inflammatory editorials are a byproduct of that progress, he added.

«The nature of publications has changed . . . they have started presenting alternative viewpoints,» Karshibaev said. «It seems to me that editors have started to switch off their self-censorship, giving journalists and independent analysts an opportunity to speak openly. They started touching upon not only socio-economic, but also geopolitical and international topics.»

Of note, the Asia-Plus weekly recently published a series of articles sharply criticizing some officials in Dushanbe. In March, the paper accused the finance minister of inaction during the financial crisis. Other newspapers have accused authorities of systematically destroying the country’s agricultural sector to turn quick, illicit profits. Such allegations, aired in such a public manner, would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Independent political analyst Parviz Mullojanov agrees that the articles are a sign of an opening environment. They are «another wave of reaction from the press to things happening in Russia,» such as harassment of Tajik migrant workers.

«I don’t think there is any political figure standing behind this in Tajikistan; it’s public opinion,» he said, adding that the Russian press is also full of negative stereotypes of Tajiks. «All those anti-Tajik articles [in Russia] give me the feeling that there is a circle of officials in Russia who stand behind this and think that there should be more strict attitude towards post-Soviet countries, especially in regard to Central Asian countries.»

While Tajikistan’s media environment may be opening slightly, Tajik authorities at present retain broad control over the country’s information space. The great extent of official control was underscored on April 3, when Dushanbe revoked the broadcast rights of the Russian state-controlled TV channel RTR-Planeta, which is widely viewed as the Kremlin’s cultural and ideological loudspeaker within the CIS. The move brought to an end the terrestrial broadcast of any Russian-language programming in Tajikistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav040709a.shtml

Some observers speculate that officials in Dushanbe may be fomenting anti-Russian sentiment in the press to deflect criticism away from their own poor management of the domestic economy. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav121608.shtml Others wonder if Dushanbe is using tough tactics in order to coax Moscow into providing a generous economic assistance package.

If Tajik officials are indeed trying to use the media campaign to somehow pressure Moscow, they are playing risky game, some local analysts say. «Publications full of the anti-Russian rhetoric . . . are more dangerous than they might seem,» said Isamova, the journalist. «Russia really has [lots of] leverage, which it can always apply should there be a need.»

With Tajikistan’s migrants increasingly vulnerable to unemployment in Russia, and with the Russian economy seemingly caught in a downward spiral, the chances seem high that a coordinated media campaign against Moscow would be counterproductive for Dushanbe. Rather than securing desired economic assistance, Tajikistan could find itself inundated by waves of economic migrants cast out of Russia.

The Russian Embassy in Dushanbe expressed regret at the way Russia has been portrayed lately in the Tajik media. Press Secretary Kamil Magomedov, in an interview on April 8, noted that while Tajik journalists were entitled to their opinions, «what we are seeing in the recent publications goes beyond the boundaries of decency and human logic.»

Magomedov reserved particular criticism for reports that claimed Russia helped stoke «genocide» during the Tajik civil war. «The ideas of genocide and instigation of the civil war in Tajikistan [by Russia] are absurd,» Magomedov said. «We all remember that many Russian soldiers and border guards died protecting the objects of infrastructure in Tajikistan during the civil war. Russia was the guarantor of peace in those years of hardship.»

Whether the incendiary articles are officially sanctioned or merely the product of an emboldened press, Dushanbe looks progressively more on its own. One Russian politician summarized his country’s attitude. The Tajik government’s constant emergency appeals to the donor community look self-centered and clumsy, he suggested: «Why don’t Tajik leaders withdraw certain amounts from their foreign bank accounts? Why wouldn’t they help their own people instead of cajoling the money from Russia and other foreign states?»

Editor’s Note: Konstantin Parshin is a freelance correspondent based in Dushanbe.

Posted April 8, 2009 © Eurasianet

Konstantin Parshin, EurasiaNet

Источник: http://www.eurasianet.org