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  • Caucasus And Central Asia: Armenia Has Most Favorable Media Environm

    CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA: ARMENIA HAS MOST FAVORABLE MEDIA ENVIRONMENT IN 2011

    EurasiaNet.org
    http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64020
    Aug 9, 2011
    NY

    It's no secret that the Caucasus and Central Asia are inhospitable
    places for free speech and independent journalism. But a recent
    survey by IREX, an international organization that promotes civil
    society, found even countries that experienced so-called "color"
    revolutions have been unable to produce lasting, positive changes in
    their respective media environments.

    In examining regional trends, experts said during a recent roundtable
    discussion that freedom of speech, mass media independence and
    related issues tended to improve immediately in Georgia after the
    2003 Rose Revolution, as well as in Kyrgyzstan following the 2005
    Tulip Revolution. But the gains proved fleeting, as the Georgian and
    Kyrgyz media environments over time have reverted to close to the
    point where they were before those revolutions, panelists said.

    The roundtable coincided with the release of IREX's 10th annual
    Media Sustainability Index (MSI) for Europe and Eurasia. The
    survey represents an effort by the NGO "to measure the strength and
    viability of any country's media sector." Although known mainly for
    promoting educational exchanges, IREX is involved in a wide variety
    of civil-society related activities, including media development.

    The 2011 findings confirmed that Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are
    among the most repressive states on earth. On a scale of 0 to 4,
    with 4 representing a free media environment, the IREX survey gave
    Turkmenistan a 0.35 and Uzbekistan a 0.56 rating. IREX deemed Armenia,
    with a 2.09 rating, to have the most favorable media climate in the
    Caucasus and Central Asia in 2011.

    Given political developments in both countries, roundtable panelists
    portrayed Georgia and Kyrgyzstan as disappointing performers in
    terms of media freedom. Over the past decade, Georgia's MSI rating
    has remained basically flat, going from 1.82 in 2001 to 1.85 in 2011.

    Kyrgyzstan's has risen slightly over the same period, going from
    1.29 to 1.66. Both of those rankings qualified the countries' media
    environments as "unsustainable mixed systems," according to IREX.

    Serbia and Ukraine, which also experienced "color revolutions,"
    also saw only modest gains.

    Some countries which did not have color revolutions have outpaced, or
    at least kept up with their "color revolution" neighbors, according
    to the IREX survey. Over the last decade, for example, Tajikistan's
    media environment has improved more than Kyrgyzstan's, and Kazakhstan's
    has improved nearly as much, according to survey. Armenia's ranking
    has likewise improved more over that timeframe than Georgia's.

    "There can be a spike" immediately after the revolutions, said Leon
    Morse, managing editor of the MSI. "So far none of these [revolutions]
    have had lasting impacts." Frequently, post-transition countries have
    strong legal protection for the media in theory, but in practice the
    laws are ignored, he added.

    A positive media environment depends heavily on a strong, independent
    judiciary, civil servants who are dedicated to implementing laws
    related to access to information, and "simply having leaders who are
    committed to following these laws," Morse said.

    Georgia and Kyrgyzstan do not meet those criteria, participants in
    the roundtable said.

    "The Georgian constitution and the legal environment in Georgia offer
    quite strong protection for freedom of press and freedom of speech,"
    said Anastasia Mirzoyants, a project manager at InterMedia. "However,
    the problem with the media environment is that the rules and
    regulations are quite frequently violated by the government, and the
    government uses legal, extralegal and financial means to make sure
    it is able to control the content ... of the news."

    Josh Machleder, vice president for Europe and Eurasia programs
    at Internews, said Kyrgyzstan's media environment had given back
    almost all of the gains made since the downfall of Askar Akayev's
    regime in Bishkek. "Now, we're back where we were in 2005," he told
    the roundtable.

    While there have been some positive steps, such as the recent
    decriminalization of libel, the rise of hate speech since last
    summer's violence in southern Kyrgyzstan last year has led to
    questions about how to reconcile that with freedom of expression,
    he said. "Media development happens in waves," he said. "There are
    advances and retreats."

    The roundtable discussion, titled "Lessons from Other Transitions:
    Challenges for Independent Media in Europe and Eurasia," was hosted
    by the National Endowment for Democracy.

    Editor's note: Joshua Kucera is a Washington, DC,-based freelance
    writer who specializes in security issues in Central Asia, the Caucasus
    and the Middle East. He is the editor of EurasiaNet's Bug Pit blog.


    From: Baghdasarian
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