“The East is a delicate matter.” My first association with this quotation was the image of light delicate scarves or wraps. Delicate, airy and transparent fabrics. However, on closer examination it turns out that things are far from transparent in the East. Speaking about Turkmenistan, for instance, the image of a neck scarf should be replaced by a heavy black Islamic veil. At least the authorities are trying to draw this veil over the media outlets of Turkmenistan.
I was confronted with this phenomenon recently. I must admit that the reason I paused to think about Turkmenistan was in connection with my University project, according to which we were to research the media market of a selected country. The die was cast and my country was Turkmenistan.
As my fellow students were busily surfing page views of internet-based resources, TV channels and gauging the size of the advertising market, I was browsing the web in an attempt to find any information about Turkmenistan. To say that there are limited resources on the Internet about Turkmenistan is an understatement.
Have a go yourself with the help of google. The websites I came across were either links from Wikipedia, small articles devoted to some significant events, or state-sponsored websites providing official information. Alas, according to the clear-cut criteria of my assignment, I was not to rely on official sources but to search for alternative opinion.
After reading panegyric articles about the good life in Turkmenistan, I decided to take a more devious path. It should be mentioned that the first inkling that made me think that “something was wrong” was the lack of comments on almost all web resources I found. Some websites did not have the option to leave comments on an article, but even those which had this option remained silent. News portals without the opportunity to provide feedback is a symptom of censorship in itself, since if a person is unable to respond, to voice his opinion, this turns the information flow into a one-way street. Jean Baudrillard very accurately describes this phenomenon in his “Requiem for the media”. Nevertheless, in our age of internet-based journalism, I had an idea that despite the fact that print media are strictly censored, there might be bloggers out there, in the web space, who could provide more unbiased information than state-sponsored sources.
Thus, I ended up contacting the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights. I wrote them a letter with a request to help me find reliable information on the state of mass media in Turkmenistan. I must confess I was not confident of getting a response – who would answer a student out of nowhere and provide problem data? Nevertheless, much to my surprise, I received a reply the same day with an attached report and an offer of help. Farid Tukhbatullin, editor of the website “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” was kind enough to give his skype account and patiently answered my questions.
In their reports the situation in Turkmenistan looked different, to put it mildly. Cases of persecution and murder of journalists who opposed censorship imposed by the state were recorded. Moreover, it was demonstrated which orders and decrees issued by the head of the state are used to exercise control over media outlets. There is virtually no internet access in Turkmenistan, which explains the small number of alternative websites. Service providers control websites visited by subscribersby signing an acknowledgement where a person undertakes not to visit web resources containing information which can do harm to the interests of the country. Furthermore, Internet connection services are very expensive which make them even less accessible. The editorial office of the Turkmen Initiative in its turn is based abroad, for political reasons inter alia.
In Turkmenistan it is extremely complicated to obtain a visa, especially for journalists. Those who succeed in doing so are obliged to follow the instructions of governmental agencies and are not permitted to take photos of “forbidden” sights. The materials are inspected prior to departure and “inappropriate” ones are confiscated. Tom Vaes, a Belgium reporter who visited Turkmenistan in the spring of 2013, writes about this in detail.
Turkmenistan ranks 4th in natural gas reserves. Putting two and two together one can easily guess that the world community would prefer to turn a blind eye as long as possible to what is going on in the remote eastern country with scarce information. Despite the fact that Turkmenistan together with Northern Korea has consistently been at the bottom of the freedom of mass media rating, no big changes are envisaged. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov occasionally makes ambitious statements about the development of independent media outlets in the country. However, no tangible changes are taking place as the world accepts his word for the deed.
In order for the Turkmen nation to be heard, the real situation should be disclosed to the maximum number of people. The sooner the international community sees the face hidden by the veil of Turkmen censorship, the better the chance are that people residing in the country will be able to restore their rights envisaged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Maria Dubrovskaya
European Humanitarian University (Vilnius)