Do we have a public television in Kyrgyzstan? This question was the main in the agenda during the media forum named “Reforming the sector of mass media in Kyrgyzstan”.( more information in the event and organizations involved is here).
This forum that was staged in the Ak Keme hotel on June 6th gathered media professionals and politicians concerned about the prospects of independent public broadcasting in the country.

It should be noted that various ideas of implementing the ambitious project of introducing public television on the ground have been in place for several years. With no visible results so far.
Talking about the history of this question we can recall that different ideas of creating public broadcasting service ( somewhat similar to American PBS with slight variations) has always been connected with reorganizing National Kyrgyz Television. This exact station was envisioned as a foundation for establishing public broadcasting nationwide. Indeed this variant seemed to be the only possible in terms of its technical parameters and characteristics. The matter is that KTR (Kyrgyz Television and Radio Station) is the only broadcaster with an outreach at the whole country, including the most remote regions. At the same time for a decade KTR was notorious for its low quality of programming and an incredible loyalty to power holders.

The ray of hope in this sense occurred right after the revolution in March 2005 when for a couple of days KTR turned into the open microphone and a platforms for all views and opinions existing featuring literally every person eager to share revolutionary opinions and ideas. The euphoria though didn’t last. New authorities of the country at first announced the intention to reorganize KTR and turn it into the real public channel. This promise has never been kept. As a matter of fact, it will never be, as the State Secretary announced at the forum organized by the Media Representative Institute and Internews Kyrgyzstan. According to Adahan Madumarov, for the country willing to sustain its statehood, television station owned by the government is a must. Only this can ensure that the state ideology is channeled properly to the citizens of the country. This statement has been questioned by a number of media professionals as well political leaders from opposition. One of them, Omurbek Tekebaev pointed out that while the state monopoly on the information, being spread throughout the country, exists under no circumstances can Kyrgyzstan proceed with democratic reforms.

It’s been also noted that the TV station LTR – newly created company with an ambition to substitute for real public television in the country- will hardly be able to meet the requirements of the ideal public TV station namely the ideological and financial independence from the state, high quality of programming, etc. As one of the forum’s participants observed the quality of the product offered by LTR brings us back to the 1950th.
In this light it’s possible to state that in the process of introducing public broadcasting in Kyrgyzstan the procedure consists rather from backslides than breakthroughs. The beginning that doesn’t seem to contain any promise.