A Lot of Censorship, a Little Freedom
The Media in Central Asia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
When it comes to freedom of the press, the Central Asian states are ranked among the lower third of the world’s countries. The regimes control television and limit the freedom of the press. Only a small circle of people has access to the Internet. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, there is at least a rather multi-faceted press with opposition papers. It is different in Uzbekistan. Here, after the crushing of the Andijan uprising in 2005, the regime expelled foreign media from the country and forbid local journalists to work. With that, the last niches of press freedom were removed. In Turkmenistan, these never existed. Only in North Korea were conditions for an independent media worse in 2006.
(Osteuropa 8-9/2007, pp. 531–542)