Trip Report
Eric Johnson eric@sovam.com
Internews
July, 1996MONGOLIA BACKGROUND Mongolia is one of the least-densely populated countries in the world. Over half of its 2.2 million inhabitants still live a nomadic life among its vast plains herding cattle and sheep, living in gers (yurts). As a result, media of any kind cannot reach more than a small proportion of the country's population.
The only major urban concentration in Mongolia is the capital, Ulaan-Baator (henceforth UB), with a population of about 600,000. UB is the center of one of 21 administrative divisions known as aimags; the other administrative centers average only about 20,000 in population. Each state has ten to fifteen sonoms, or districts, which tend to be populated only during the winter when the herders return home.
Since World War I Mongolia has been a de facto protectorate of the USSR, and its economic and political system mirrored the Soviet one in most respects. Even as Russians were in many cases forcibly evicted after the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991 (only several thousand remain), Mongolia followed Russia's lead in economic and political liberalization. Today Mongolia has two main non-communist parties, the Social Democrats (MSDP) and the National Democrats (MNDP), which united with two smaller opposition parties under the Democratic Union coalition banner to sweep from power the ruling former communist party (MPRP) in June 1996 elections to the 76-seat single-mandate parliament (the coalition won 50 seats). Although there is considerable political and economic freedom, private ownership of land is still not legal.
Mongolian is the language of everyday discourse and the only language most Mongolians know. Russian is the dominant foreign language and is spoken widely among the elite, many of whom were educated in the Soviet Union, but as in the non-Russian republics of the NIS many youth are working harder on their English since the thaw in the early 1990s. Regionally, Mongolia remains oriented toward Russia, considering it to be by far the lesser evil of the two superpowerers which sandwich it and reflecting a deep historical animosity toward China.
Mongolian names are double, the second name being the one people go by (often transformed into a diminutive). The first name is simply one's father's name. A revival of a pre-revolutionary third name denoting affiliation to one of the country's ancient families is beginning but most Mongolians still do not know their third name, let alone use it. Mongolian has its own alphabet which was replaced by Cyrillic in the 1920s, but the old alphabet--visually similar to Arabic but written vertically--is now once again taught to schoolchildren.
Even as telephones work well for local calls in UB, few lines have direct-dial ability to reach long-distance or international switches, and all telephone numbers outside of UB are only four digits in length. (UB telephone numbers are five or six digits.) Telecommunications will remain a state monopoly until 1999 and in the meantime international calls are fantastically expensive--six to eight dollars per minute to reach Europe or America.
The currency is the tugrik (written variously), currently about 653 to the dollar. As of June 1996 transactions may be made only in tugriks. Inflation against the dollar seems to be about twenty percent annually.
The country's road system is almost non-existent. There is a rail link as well as a passable two- lane paved road leading from Russia, 400 km to the north, through Darkhon to UB and 400 km on through the Gobi desert in the south to China, and paved roads connect the country's two main mining centers to this backbone, but few roads worthy of the name traverse the rest of the country and those that do are mostly unpaved. Air service connects the capital with the more distant half of the regional centers between one and three times a week.
This paper documents information gathered during a one-week trip to Mongolia in June 1996 encompassing five cities and interviewing about fifty people in government, business, and the non-profit sector to examine the state of non-governmental television in Mongolia and make recommendations to enhance its ability to provide the population with information. The author wishes to especially thank Naranzhargal, Erdentuya, and Lutaa for their assistance during the research process.
There is no legislation directly addressing the rights and responsibilities of the mass media in the country, although the December 1995 Law on Telecommunications regulates frequency use, and there is a 1994 law on intellectual property even though Mongolia has not joined the Bern Convention which would obligate it to respect international copyright. Several draft laws on the media exist and such a law in one form or another will probably be passed in either fall 1996 or spring 1997. THE MEDIA ENVIRONMENT
Media do not as a rule report political obstacles to their work. Private media do report that it can be difficult to acquire access to information, as government sources often refuse to provide interviews to other than government-controlled media.
Under a 1991 government decree, all media must register as such with the Ministry of Justice, but none report this process to be a hindrance. A Ministry handbook (available to the public) details the registration guidelines: the registration cost is $4, and the only requirements are that the media organization prove that it is a legal entity registered with the tax service, and show that it has the financial ability to "publish". As of June 1996 the Ministry had registered about 525 would-be print media and about 25 electronic media (including production studios, cable TV, photo agencies, etc.). But the records are kept in different books and by hand, so the data is not completely reliable; the Ministry reported not knowing of several stations we'd visited. In addition, they make no effort to check their data, so a company's disappearance will not be taken into account in the registration book.
The Ministry has the right to fine media or revoke registration for violation of the legal environment in which they operate, but they report that since they do not actively monitor the media action will be taken only if a complaint is received. In the first half of 1996 they received two complaints; on the first, the offended person took the newspaper to court (for mistakenly reporting his death!), and on the second, kiosk sellers were reprimanded for selling locally- produced pornography at a public stand in the center of town. The registration division says they have refused to register an applicant only once, when State TV employees purportedly wanted to create a private TV station on the basis of State TV's equipment. The registration department produces a biannual report on its activity but considers this document to be for internal use only.
Electronic media must apply for a frequency license from the Minstry of Infrastructure Development; the procedure is governed by the Law on Telecommunications and detailed in a Ministry guidebook publicly available. Per these regulations, licenses may be issued for up to twenty years, but reports indicate most so far most are for one to five years, costing on an annual basis about $200; no one has reported particular difficulties receiving one. The Ministry says a prerequisite for receiving a frequency license is approval of a broadcast plan by State TV; obviously the possibility for censorship exists, and this requirement will probably be removed soon, but all media with which we met reported Gosteleradio approval to be a pure formality and never used as a tool of control.
All six VHF frequencies in UB are occupied, so the most recent applicant had to settle for the first UHF license in the country--a major liability, since most TVs can't receive UHF channels, MATV systems are not tuned for UHF frequencies, and UHF signals travel shorter distances and do not penetrate the thick concrete walls of Soviet-style apartment buildings as well as VHF transmissions. The Ministry also reported that they don't plan to approve any more applications for FM frequencies in UB in the near future because all five existing FM radio stations "play the same thing, and who needs more music?"
The Ministry has the right to fine or revoke licenses if technical standards are violated, and reports on several occasions having assessed fines for transmitters which cause interference, exceed their rated capacity, or otherwise failed to measure up to their standards. The Ministry says that no one has applied for any radio frequency other than FM. In any case, the ITU has allocated Mongolia very few AM and long-wave frequencies and all the ones with the ability to reach a wide area are used by State TV.
The main difficulty associated with being an independent media organization is financial; the country is quite poor and there is little private industry which would pay for advertising time to sell products, little competition between potential advertisers (and thus no need for advertising), and no tradition of advertising, so it is difficult to convince companies that paying for air time is worthwhile. The media's purchase of needed materials (paper, TV equipment) is subject to a 26.5-percent VAT charge, which significantly raises the cost of buying already-expensive imports like VCRs and cameras.
There is also a serious lack of trained journalists and, even more so, trained managers to serve effectively in commercial, independent mass media. Most leading journalists with a degree in their field studied in the Soviet Union and still, for the most part, are adherents of the top-down school of journalism: the journalist's task is to convince the reader of the correctness of the journalist's point of view. Before 1990 there was only one place to receive a journalism degree in Mongolia; in the early 1990s other educational institutions instigated journalism courses, but it is generally agreed that they remain quite primitive and are said to lack teaching materials and equipment. There are now at least six journalism departments in various higher education institutions in UB, but most are extremely small, with perhaps ten to twenty students each.
In UB there are two private radio stations, FM 102.5 and JAAG 107. Both are independent but neither can afford to field the staff necessary to acquire news themselves, and for the most part depend on reading the newspapers for their information while concentrating on providing music. The number of FM receivers is small but growing. State Radio recently also inaugurated its own FM station at 100.9, the UB city government opened one on 101.6, and a local educational institution opened a low-power station on FM 105 for distance learning purposes. THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA
We were unable to unearth any reliable data on the number of TVs or radios in the republic and what their reception abilities are.
The first nongovernmental electronic medium in the capital operating on its own frequency was Radio Ulaan-Baator 102.5, broadcasting since April 1995 on a homemade transmitter, now daily from 08.00 to 00.00. (They would like to broadcast later, and did so for a short while, but the owner of their building became upset at the staff's late comings and goings.) The station has approached Moscow radio networks to become an affiliate but found the requirements for carrying Moscow-based programming--sixteen hours per day--were too high. Advertising time costs about four dollars per minute; they charge for song requests. Other commercial ventures subsidize the radio, such as importing and selling FM radios, mastering CDs for local musicians, etc.
JAAG 107 reportedly paid to install FM receivers in UB city buses in exchange for a promise that they would be tuned to FM 107. JAAG's capital comes from, among other ventures, commercial trading operations; they have also set up a CD-writing studio. The station's directors reported that the June 1996 elections were a profitable period; even as every day they held a non- paid debate, inviting all local candidates to show up for a debate in their studio over one question, they charged for political ads. JAAG airs a five-minute local news segment every two hours on the quarter after, so that people who listen to news on State Radio on the hour will then tune in to JAAG. The station is privately owned by four people whose initials form the company's name, and was started on the basis of equipment which one of the founders bought from East German State radio when the Berlin wall fell. JAAG has paid a local organization to produce ratings (the first of which we are aware in Mongolia) but the results are not yet in. JAAG just purchased low-quality S-VHS equipment (three Panasonic M9000 cameras and three JVC SR360-based editing suites), and by mid-August expects to take delivery on the first UHF TV transmitter in the country, a 1-kW unit ordered in China for $40,000 (including antenna); the (governmental) UB tower owner has agreed to mount the antenna on the main tower in the capital. (JAAG chose not to buy a cheaper Russian transmitter because RGB's Russian-made transmitter has broken down often.) JAAG TV plans to go on the air in September.20
A journalist in Khovskol, a regional city of 30,000 or so, has a commercial radio station (reportedly funded by the MNDP, one of the opposition parties) which broadcasts several hours per day and is said to have just acquired television equipment as well. RGB (more below) is considering opening a radio station in Darkhon and also plans to start a local independent newspaper. Radio UB 102.5 opened a commercial radio station in Erdenet (102.4) on the supposition that since Mongolia's main hard currency earner, a copper plant, is located there, advertising would justify the investment, but its operation has been suspended because the transmissions interfered with local TV reception; the antenna is now being fixed.
The major radio station in the country is the state-run one, which broadcasts for about eighteen hours a day on a network of transmitters throughout the country.
The only full-service TV channel in Mongolia is the state-run one, which is on the air in all populated centers from 18.00 to 23.00 daily and somewhat more on weekends. Monday is the "day off" for State TV, and local government-run TV production houses (such as Ulaan-Baator TV in UB) in some aimag capitals use this day for local programming. This central channel is beamed to retransmitters around the country via an Asiasat transponder, rent of which gobbles up a large portion (probably a quarter) of State TV's annual budget of about four million dollars. In addition microwave stations beam State TV to 11 of the 20 aimag capitals, a waste of money which is difficult to justify given the satellite beam. When Mongolia's government starts to look for budget cuts, the chances are either the Asiasat channel or the microwave network will be cut, the more so since Asiasat is probably none too happy about being locked into selling a transponder on a part-time basis.
State TV produces daily national news using Betacam (three cameras and one editing suite), U-matic (three-quarter-inch; two editing suites), and Hi-8 ( six editing suites). The news is relatively informative and makes good use of video but lacks any graphics and in general is relatively primitive in terms of watchability. Of course, it carries practically no information from outside the capital (not that a lot happens in the country's regional towns, which are mostly agriculturally based and, during the summer, mostly empty).
The new government in Ulaan-Baator is talking about converting State TV to some sort of public TV service or perhaps even privatizing it. This has already begun along the lines of similar processes in the NIS: employees of State TV gradually form semi-private or private studios, then use State TV's equipment to produce programs for which they sell advertising time and then put on the air on State TV, usually without paying for the air time and at a profit. The first such example was a commercial production house called Tenkhleg, which in 1992 was allowed to take over Friday night programming on State TV, and it occupied that slot for eighteen months, covering costs with revenues from ten-minute ad clips. When its honeymoon period ended, however, it proved financially unable to meet commitments to pay the government for tranmission costs and was deprived of its national air time. Tenkhleg continues to produce programs independently on a contract basis using three cameras (2 VHS, 1 Hi-8) and a primitive S-VHS editing suite. Tenkhleg's director, Garam-ochir, hopes that the country's change of leadership will result in new people at State TV who will buy his programs. Another studio which has similarly ceased operations is Svobodnoe televidenie. A radio company, White Falcon, had a similar arrangement with State Radio, also now terminated. Newer examples include Borodai, a computer graphics studio; MTR Entertainment Television, which has a whole lineup of programs it is peddling to potential corporate sponsors around Mongolia, and Jenko, an arm of a local business conglomerate.
In the capital, Russia's Channel One (ORT) and Japan's national state-run channel NHK are pulled down from satellite and rebroadcast over the open air, each on their own channel. Hotels carry a couple channels from Asiasat for visiting Americans and Japanese, but few if any homes can afford the $800 needed to install a dish of their own. Mongolian State TV uses a second UHF frequency to broadcast to the suburbs.
There are at least three private TV stations already on the air in Mongolia in as many cities. In addition, at least two more intend to begin broadcasting in UB by September 1996, and several more in the provinces are reported to have ordered transmitters.
In UB, Eagle TV is a joint venture between a local opposition leader and an American missionary group. The latter claims to have invested over $800,000 into the venture, including its own transmitter and fully-imported control room; the equipment is said to have been donated by a commercial American station. Eagle TV went on the air on October 1995 and broadcasts CNN, NBA basetball games, and a daily local news program produced on a wide array of professional Hi-8 equipment, bringing the terrestrial selection in UB to four channels in the evening. Three American TV professionals work at the station. The setup is quite impressive and their news is much more visually arresting than State TV's.
RGB is a commercial station in Darkhon, the country's second city (population 80,000, about 200 km N of UB). RGB was started and is still dependent on three local entreprenuers who want to provide a local TV alternative to that which emanates from the center. RGB's competitors in terrestrial broadcasting are State TV, ORT, and Russian TV. With seven employees and working entirely on VHS, the station uses one camera, two VCRs, two satellite dishes (1.9 and 2.6 m), and its own 100-w transmitter to broadcast a minimal amount of original programming, pirating the rest of its daily nine-hour broadcast from videotaped movies and satellites. Earlier RGB used WorldNet programming (from USIA) but when the transponder carrying WorldNet was refocused in late 1995 their satellite dish could no longer provide satisfactory quality for local retransmission. The daily ten-minute news program is completely unprofessional but shows an admirable effort toward informing the audience with a lively and informative presentation, and the station's managers are eager to learn how to improve their station's quality in all aspects. The director showed us the VideoBlaster he'd just bought and the simple results his computer person has created using 3D-Studio. RGB has a number of financing schemes. The station has about eight advertisers but the bulk of income comes from selling "announcements" which scroll across the bottom of the screen ($0.09/word for people, $0.11 for organizations, a total of $10 to $20 per day). Revenue covers only about twenty percent of operating expenses; the owners' businesses, including a factory which assembles TVs from Japanese components, subsidize the rest. But they're now hoping to convince the city government to enact a levy on TV sets; currently TV owners (about 5000 in the city) pay $0.50/mo to support State TV (this is probably a nation-wide charge), and RGB is asking for a additional local levy of $0.35 which it would receive in exchange for providing a local channel. RGB has also begun to import TV transmitters from Novosibirsk for startup commercial stations in other Mongolian cities, at about $10K-$20K per.
The third private station was started in 1992 by a Kazak in Baian-olgii, an aimag center near Mongolia's western border, far from UB. Working with a staff of four and its own ten-watt transmitter on channel ten, TVK-10 broadcasts several hours on Friday and Monday nights. The director estimates his audience to be the town (a regional center) and neighboring villages, about 22,000. However, with only one camera and four VCRs, his ability to produce is limited, though he does air a small regular news program. He noted that the June 1996 elections were a boon, providing revenue of over $1000 in one month, but he has not yet finished paying off the credits he used to buy the sheepskins which he traded in Kazakstan for his original equipment, in spite of occasional help from the city government's budget. (He gave each candidate limited free air time and charged for additional ad space.) His only competition is State TV.
There are rumors of commercial TV stations in some of the other aimags. The mining conglomerate in Erdenet is setting up its own TV station, and RGB is selling a transmitter to the gold company in Dornod aimag which is also establishing a local TV channel.
The two new stations in UB hold promise. One mentioned earlier is a venture into TV by JAAG radio. The other is a Mongolian-Russian joint venture between Montelekom (the Mongolian long-distance operator) and TV-Novosti (owner of RIA-Novosti--formerly APN, one of Russia's two state-run news agencies--and part of Lisovskii's Video International conglomerate). Currently this new company, called Saisar TV, rebroadcasts Russian TV from satellite on a weak 100-watt VHF transmitter which keeps breaking down. The group has acquired a minimal amount of U-matic equipment from Moscow (two cameras, one editing suite) and say they will soon begin shooting a 160-series Mongolian soap opera which, in addition to regular news, is to provide the local content in their channel, which they hope to strengthen with a stronger (1-kW) transmitter this fall.
UB sports at least three cable TV networks, but for the most part they simply retransmit programs from satellites--all pirated; JAAG TV hopes to team up with the one cable network which produces its own daily news program to augment their own offerings. We did not have time to visit any of the cable networks, but they probably have 2000 to 5000 subscribing families each. (In Russia cable TV has all but died because the cable is quickly stolen, but this phenomenon has not appeared in Mongolia.) In Darkhon we saw a building with four satellite dishes and were told it was a cable TV company financed by Chinese entrepreneurs from Inner Mongolia and its operation was soon to be inaugurated. A few other regional centers probably have cable; for instance, the cable TV station in Erdenet is reported to upset the local state TV station by constantly scooping it with a daily local news program (local state TV, of course, broadcasts only on Mondays).
This research trip concentrated on the electronic media, so the information presented here about the print media should not be considered exhaustive. THE PRINT MEDIA
There are two main government-run daily newspapers, the government organs Ardyn Erkh and Zasgeen Gazryn Midee, but with daily circulations of around 50,000 they are influential only among a relatively limited group of readers; the only other daily in the country is the UB city government's Ulaan-Baator, with circulation of about 25,000. Many independent newspapers have sprung up but none are daily; the largest, Il Tovchoo and Khukh tolbo, come out every ten days and have a circulation of 5000 to 8000, somewhat over half of which are sold in the capital. Most newspapers outside of the capital are the official organ of the aimag government and come out only once or twice per month.
Aside from the Danida-financed press (described below), the only major printing press in the country is owned by the communist party. The UB city newspaper has a small Chinese printing press of its own and in 1997 hopes to expand it.
In 1990 and 1991 the Asia Foundation funded a trip of several Mongolian journalists to study at Berkeley. EXISTING MEDIA ASSISTANCE EFFORTS
In 1992 Bob Anderson, a former Lt. Governer of Iowa, visited Mongolia and subsequently received a USIA grant to bring a group of Mongolians to study and intern for a month or so in his Iowa Community Journalism Center.
In 1994 William Ringle visited Mongolia under the auspicies of Washington, DC-based Freedom Forum and held a seminar on journalism as well as writing a report on the state of Mongolian mass media.
In 1994 and 1995 the Asia Foundation supported the travel of several American and English specialists to assist the Mongolian government in creating a draft law on media. The report on their trip provides a scathing report of the then-current state of State TV.
In 1995 Lutaa, a local journalist, received a grant from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation to write a summary of the Mongolian mass media and conduct a poll among the public and journalists on their attitude to existing information sources. This perceptive analysis remains current today and effectively describes the numerous difficulties facing the media in general; it should be read by anyone interested in the Mongolian media situation.
The journalism school of Mongolian State University is said to be hoping to receive a grant from Japan for purchase of TV equipment to use for educational purposes.
There have been rumors of German involvement in creating a private TV station with the social democrats in a western aimag; this may be related to the purchase of TV equipment by the Khovskol commercial radio station, but we were unable to substantiate this.
In early 1996 under the IFJ's imprint, the parliamentary research center's mass media watcher, Erdentuya, released "The Present Situation of Mongolian Mass Media", a short overview which included the text of two draft mass media laws currently under consideration as well as commentary from local journalists about their economic and political situation.
The press has received considerably moral and financial assistance from a two-pronged joint project funded by Danida, the Danish state aid agency, and supported by the Mongolian government, slated to last through the end of 1997. Any media assistance effort should be tailored to take advantage of the resources these institutions offer independent journalism. The first prong of the Danida project involved installation of a rebuilt Swedish printing press and includes a startup grant of 800 tonnes of paper imported from France (cheaper, reportedly, than buying it in nearby Russia). The press services dozens of independent newspapers and more than a few government papers and is moving toward financial self-sustainability. In 1995, the printing press's director, Naranzhargal (a former director of State TV), wrote a short report on the status and opportunities of the Mongolian independent press.
Danida's second contribution is the creation of the Press Institute. Its director, Enkhbat, claims that during its first year of existence nearly 500 journalists have participated in its seminars. The PI has high-quality space for holding seminars and press conferences (including a computer training room with ten Pentiums), is beginning a library with journalism materials and all local papers, and organizes round tables and clubs on topics of interest to journalists. The PI has also received small grants from the Thompson Foundation and USIS to publish books on journalism in Mongolian, has received a UNDP grant to create a public access Internet center for journalists, and has received funding from the Asia Foundation (a USAID-supported body) to send journalists abroad, hold additional local seminars, and write an analysis of the media's work during the election campaign of June 1996.
TACIS (Technical Assistance to the CIS, the EU's aid body) funds an IFJ (International Federation of Journalists) project to create and support a Mongolian Free & Democratic Journalists' Association, which now competes with the old state-sponsored Journalists' Union. The IFJ also plans to sponsor a major conference on the independent media in Mongolia at the end of August 1996 at Danida's Press Institute. The MFDJA includes about 300 journalists and is scorned by the official Union, which claims over 1000 members, but both are organizations searching for a mission as well as funding.
In May 1996 the IFJ sponsored a study entitled "Media Freedom in Mongolia: An Analysis of Media Laws and Other Relevant Legislation" by Helen Darbishire of Article 19. This very thorough report summarizes existing and planned Mongolian legislation which affects the media and provides recommendations for future legislation.
UNESCO provided some equipment to Montsame, the official news agency, but most of it burned in a disastrous fire. UNESCO is also seriously looking at proposals to assist the Press Institute and State TV with small equipment grants, to respectively create a TV journalism training center and bolster State TV's newsgathering abilities. UNESCO is also looking at the possibility of assisting Mongolian State University's journalism department.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is (as in Kyrgyzstan) working with the telecommunications ministry to create a plan for effective use and management of the available spectrum in Mongolia.
Mongolia's only Internet is Magicnet, a 128-Kbps IP satellite connection to the Internet in the US through Sprint, which was created in early 1996 by Datacom, a local company, using assistance from, among others, the NSF, the USDA, and George Soros' Open Society Institute. During the summer of 1996 Magicnet is supposed to connect eight universities and institutes to the hub in central UB via radio modem. Magicnet already counts over 500 subscribers and perhaps half of the independent media with which I met already have e-mail boxes with the company, and the rest promised to do so shortly. THE INTERNET
The independent print media is well-cared-for by way of assistance efforts through the Danida project. However, Danida's funding will run out at the end of 1997, so much depends on its projects acquiring financial self-sustainability. RECOMMENDATIONS
The independent electronic media is still young. However, existing independent radio and TV could benefit substantially from an extension of Internews' assistance in NIS countries. Inclusion of media staff in seminars in Central Asia and Russia could provide very important practical knowledge which cannot be gained from any other sources (save expensive training courses with the BBC, the NHK, the USIA, or Deutsche Welle). If funding were available, there are now enough private electronic media in the country to hold Internews' basic TV journalism and management seminars in Mongolia (six stations on the air by September 1996).
Distribution of Internews' TV manuals in Russian could provide much-needed knowledge to fledgling TV organizations throughout the country, but even more effective would be their translation and publication in Mongolian, then distribution through the new journalism schools. Additionally, translation into Mongolian of Internews' "Guide to Starting a Low-Power Radio Station" would be similarly effective since radio is likely to be the main way most Mongolians get their information for the forseeable future. Distribution of similar guides for the press would be most useful, including in particular "Contemporary Newspaper Design", a Russian-language handbook written by staff at the Russian-American Press & Information Center in Moscow. And one guide which needs to be written in Mongolian is a style guide for journalists. The Press Institute in UB would be a prime candidate for undertaking these tasks, possibly with the financial support of USIS.
A most effective media assistance project from the point of view of increasing information flow in the country would be one concentrated on radio. However, given the limited number of available high-power frequencies and the difficulty of basing income on advertising to cash-poor and distant nomads, a high-power commercial AM radio station is probably impractical. Nonetheless, we estimate that no more than half of all Mongolians have regular access to TV broadcasts, whereas even those far from urban centers have portable radios; gas for generators is often in short supply, while batteries for the radios are not; and TV signals travel poorly over Mongolia's hilly and often mountainous terrain, but a strong AM radio signal would travel well.
A continuing concerted effort to assist those responsible for drafting and passing the new media law--and probably, later, a new law on TV as well--could have a large payoff in terms of creating a positive environment for independent media in the future. Now (the summer of 1996) is a good time to concentrate on this aspect, since the new government took power in mid-August and will probably want to pass a media law in the near future. Such an effort should be undertaken in conjuction with the parliamentary research center (and specifically with Erdentuya) and the two journalists' unions; if a coalition of interests can be built which supports only one version of the law (perhaps breaking the media law concept away from the question causing the most disagreement--the ownership of State TV), it will be passed quickly.
The new government should be strongly encouraged to make every effort to provide tax relief to the media--perhaps even something like the one-year total tax holiday the Russian government provided to its media during 1996. Though this would probably not mean much in terms of a hit to the government's budget, it would mean a great deal to the media.
There appears to be little real news widely available to Mongolians from any source whatsoever-- government or private, national or local, electronic or print--which comes from outside the republic. A worthwhile effort would result in increasing this information by providing media with the capability to receive such information electronically, perhaps translating some of it into Mongolian. Montsame, the state wire service, does this, but for some reason few of the independent media subscribe; it might be possible to buy a subscription in bulk for the independent media.
The lack of available news extends to information about elsewhere in the country as well. While the state-run media have access to a minimal national newsgathering operation (and that news is mostly official), the independent media do not. Subsidizing the creation of a private national news agency which would serve, and perhaps even build upon, private mass media would be a very worthwhile venture, much as the Soros Foundation supported UNIKA in Ukraine, the Mercy Corps supported Asia Plus in Tajikistan, etc. Initial funding can bring a news agency through a rocky period until it has established a reputation such that embassies and foreign companies with interests in Mongolia will subscribe, providing a revenue stream; an agency can augment its newsgathering by providing a clipping service to embassies and especially foreign Mongolia-watchers such as universities. Perhaps such a venture could be built on the basis of one of the Danida projects, thus using the well-established equipment base there while helping them become self-sufficient, especially since the Press Institute already has a library subscribing to all the country's press and the Printing House prints most of the capital's newspapers itself.
Without doubt, the single largest contribution which could be made to Mongolia's fledgling non- governmental TV industry would be provision of equipment. Giving each station one S-VHS camera and editing suite and a satellite dish capable of tracking birds which could provide significant legal Russian- and English-language programming would cost only about $10,000 per station.