Kyrgyzstan Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 1, 2013
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country’s media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and produced the first Europe & Eurasia MSI in 2001.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download the Complete Kyrgyzstan MSI Chapter (PDF): 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
MSI Kyrgyzstan - 2013 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.78
Despite the absence of any obvious regulatory or structural changes, turf wars for political power both in the public forum and behind-the-scenes set the stage for further turbulence in the media industry and the journalistic community.
The year 2012 began with a series of protests that rapidly spiraled into conflict. First, there were confrontations between prisoners and the management of the State Prison Service. This was followed by a series of clashes between groups of Kyrgyz youth with minority Tajik communities in the southwestern towns of Andarak and Aydarken, Caucasus youth in Jany Jer, and Uzbeks in Aravan. Domestic media outlets covered these events extensively, though not necessarily deeply.
The five squabbling, personality-driven parties in parliament continued competing relentlessly for political power, accomplishing little. In early August, a serious conflict broke out between the leader of the Ata-Meken party, Omurbek Tekebaev, and Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov, which ended in the collapse of the coalition government and the de facto assumption of control of the government by President Almazbek Atambayev, with his Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan taking the prime minister’s office. There were various moves throughout the year by the other parties in parliament to try and wrest back control from the president, but the dispute has yet to be resolved.
The Kyrgyz media has been at the epicenter of these turbulent events, as a willing participant, as collateral damage, and as the subject of political machinations. Repeated calls to “pull the plug” on various media outlets from political figures and “AstroTurf” social movements resulted. Kyrgyzstan’s competitive and diffuse politics meant that the government could not rudely control the media, but opaque ownership, poor professionalism standards, and a weak economy allowed most outlets to be used as tools for politicians to further their agendas. A vicious circle has been created, whereby this influence led to further deterioration in professionalism and pluralism.
