Provided they can do that, of course (eg. in Uzb and Turkm it is difficult if not impossible to give a realistic view on what is happening in those countries.

Besides that, a substantial part of the journalists in these countries –even those with much more media freedom– are out of touch with reality themselves. First, this is because of the absense of a professional journalism culture: older journos still have a propagandistic mindset, younger ones tend to think that ‘frriidum’ is to ventilate whatever without proper research. Second, many journalists tend to originate from often very russianized-westernised urban intelligentsia who are pretentious and have little clue about/interest for what is happening outside of their own surroundings, save perhaps twisted, socially prejudiced views.