The Government Retains its Iron Grip on Mass Media

The third in a series of articles

One could be forgiven for thinking that Turkmenistan's newspapers suffer from a severe shortage of photographers. Most days, an image of the new president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, gazes out from the front page, accompanied by a fawning, lengthy article on his latest meeting or trip. Turkmen television offers similarly monotonous and hagiographic coverage.

Given the control that the Turkmen state exercises over nearly all forms of mass communication, it's no wonder that World Press Freedom Day on May 3 did not generate the same level of fanfare in Ashgabat as did A Drop of Water is a Grain of Gold day in April, or even Melon Day last August.

Despite hopes for an opening under Berdymukhammedov, who succeeded the autocratic Saparmurat Niyazov in February, it remains clear for all to see that Turkmenistan's press remains under tight state control. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"It's just plainly a black hole; it's an outlier. We can't fit it in any category," said Nina Ognianova, the Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which included Turkmenistan in its 2006 list of the world's 10 most censored countries.

CPJ and other press freedom organizations describe an almost complete information blockade in Turkmenistan. The state owns all domestic media, appoints all editors, and approves all content. Imports of print news are limited, so residents seeking more comprehensive coverage must either add to the country's mushrooming number of satellite dishes or tune in to foreign-funded radio programming.

Some observers hoped Berdymukhammedov's moves to dampen the Niyazov personality cult – deleting the first president's name from the front page of all Turkmen newspapers, cutting a reference to him from the state oath, and ending the recitation of the oath after news broadcasts – meant information policy reform was on the way. The new president raised expectations during a late March address to the People's Council, in which he called for broader access to the outside world. "It is necessary to build in districts and villages... [a] telephone and Internet communications network," Berdymukhammedov said. "We should start all this as soon as possible."

New Internet cafes have indeed opened in Ashgabat – and reportedly in provincial capitals as well – to supplement the handful of hotel business centers and embassy information points offering public web access. However, service at the two Ashgabat locations hardly indicates a newly permissive approach.

One of the two cafes is attached to an official building that is guarded by government troops. Upon entry to either location, the client is greeted by sleek new equipment and a relatively fast connection, but also by a massive Niyazov portrait and an equally formidable fee of 90,000 manat (roughly $4) per hour. The average Turkmen citizen makes less than $5 a day, according to a 2005 World Bank estimate.

Even if more locations open and prices drop, as one employee promised, the Turkmen government will likely continue to block websites it considers sensitive. As of April, off-limits addresses included those of major Turkmen opposition groups and human rights organizations, plus most independent regional news sources, including EurasiaNet, Ferghana.ru, and Centrasia.ru. International outlets such as the BBC and CNN were accessible, although Russian-language coverage was sometimes blocked. Reportage on Turkmenistan was also available in English and Russian from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The authorities' defensive posture on allowing information into Turkmenistan is matched by an all-out assault dedicated to intimidating the few remaining independent voices inside the country. Journalists working for local outlets have no choice but to follow state directives, and the number of accredited foreign correspondents has dwindled to a handful, most of them writing for Russian media outlets.

RFE/RL is the only major news outlet to broadcast in Turkmen, and it retains a considerable network of informal correspondents inside the country. CPJ and the French watchdog Reporters Without Borders reported regular pressure on RFE/RL stringers in 2006, a number of whom were subject to interrogation, threats of losing their jobs, and criminal prosecution. The harassment turned deadly in September when Ogulsapar Muradova died in Turkmen custody, reportedly due to torture. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Authorities had arrested Muradova and two fellow reporters earlier that year on arms charges; they were sentenced to prison terms of six and seven years in closed trials in August.

Oguljamal Yazliyeva, director of RFE/RL's Turkmen service, said that the persecution of its correspondents had not abated with Berdymukhammedov's rise to power. "All the time they are under strict surveillance and the situation that was seen in Niyazov's time, it continues," she said.

Yet Yazliyeva stressed that RFE/RL hoped to "open a dialog" with the new leadership, adding that the broadcaster had sent a conciliatory letter to the government in April and was planning programming changes to try to establish a neutral ground where Turkmen citizens and experts could discuss ways to reform. "We do our best to explain that we are not enemies," she said. "Of course it is very hard for the Turkmen government to change abruptly all the situation that was created during the last 15 years."

Ognianova at CPJ said that Berdymukhammedov's administration had brought mostly more of the same. As an example she cited the president's upbraiding of Minister of Culture Enebay Atayeva in March for the low quality of state programming. According to Ognianova, Atayeva was actually reprimanded for "loosening up control on the Turkmen national television."

If Berdymukhammedov desired to show a commitment to reform, she continued, he could start by launching an independent investigation into Muradova's death, followed by moves to establish truly public Internet access and an environment free of harassment for both local and international journalists.

"But the signs are really there that Berdymukhammedov is keeping the line and the path of his predecessor," Ognianova said. "His actions are not really responding to his promises."