BACKGROUND: Private television in Uzbekistan dates to 1990, when Firdaus Abdukhalikov of Samarkand, a journalist by training, established STV or Samarkand Television. Since the USSR still existed, Abdukhalikov took his proposal directly to Moscow, where it was three times rejected. A chance meeting in May, 1990, at the Samarkand airport with future Uzbek President Islam Karimov (a Samarkand native) led to the issuance of the first license to a private TV channel, STV. In most respects STV set the stage for the other independent electronic media and for the new national network as well. It is organized as a partnership rather than a joint stock company, and has twelve co-owners. It receives 100% of its income from the sale of advertisements and is considered in law a commercial station. The director of STV is Bakhodir Sharapov, a very ambitious professional journalist whose recent interviews include US senators Shelby and Brownback. Under Sharipov’s leadership STV has gone from two small studios with ageing Soviet equipment to six modern studios and two radio stations, all with imported equipment. To some extent this success is the result of playing it safe and focusing on entertainment rather than news. Early in its existence STV was criticized for presenting programs on the traditional institutions of neighborhood self-government, the mahallas, and on the traditional New Year’s celebration, Navruz. In both instances it was faulted for presenting information of a religious character. However, in the fourteen years of its existence STV has suspended transmission for only one day, 19 August 1991, at orders of the local Samarkand KGB. However, more recently STV, as well as other independent stations, have grown somewhat bolder in their coverage. Talk shows have proven the ideal medium for greater openness. STV now offers five talk shows, all of which are transmitted live without delay, and all of which employ telephone call-in polls to register public opinion on the issues at hand. This was the first such system for registering public opinion in Uzbekistan. Among recent talk show topics have been the position of women in Uzbek society, which engendered fierce debate. The final telephone tally favored women leaving the home to work by only two votes. Another recent topic (5 November) was the work of NGOs in Uzbekistan. Only a few months earlier George Soros’ Open Society Institute had been denied registration for having begun operations before obtaining permission and out of an apartment limited to residential use. Yet at this program representatives of the US-based Eurasia Foundation and other groups made their case for NGOs in Uzbekistan. On some issues STV’s editorial stance has been openly proclaimed. On the one hand, it does not pretend to deal with the issue of terrorism from a position of neutrality, and seeks instead to engage its journalists in the fight against terrorist groups. On the other hand, it has consistently supported full convertibility of the Uzbek currency and a range of concrete steps to make the Uzbek economy more attractive to foreign investors. In all of these respects, STV has been at the forefront of the development of private television in Uzbekistan. It is not surprising, therefore, that the founder of STV, Mr. Abdukhalikov, should have been an organizer and now president of the Association of Electronic Mass Media of Uzbekistan, and that that body should now be launching a nationwide private TV network.

IMPLICATIONS: The Association, founded on 11 December 2003, embraces fifty of the ninety TV and radio stations in Uzbekistan. In an effort to create a “civilized” environment in the private mass media, it adopted a code for journalists specifying both their rights and responsibilities. Overall, the Association sees independent media as assuming a more prominent place in the civil society of Uzbekistan. In September 2004 the Association announced the formation of NTT, the Uzbek acronym for “Non-Governmental TV Network.” Its twenty-four participating stations (among them STV) will reach seventeen million people in 70% of the territory of Uzbekistan, and reach into neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan as well. The director of NTT is Mukhamedjon Sanginov , formerly head of the independent station in Pekabad. A prominent feature of the new network is its explicit intention of providing full coverage of all elections, and of democratic reforms generally, including political parties, the activities of the new Olij Majlis (parliament). It intends to organize debates among candidates, and to assure that they are arranged in such a way as to force participants to speak in detail on what they are for and against. “We are deliberately seeking to compete with the government’s TV stations,” says Abdukhalikov. Inevitably, such coverage will bring the new network into contact with the Electoral Commission. So far relations with that body have been correct and rather guarded but it is expected that they will sharpen if and when NTT provides more detailed coverage of the work of the Commission. Competition with the government TV is bound to force NTT to peer more closely at the Commission’s work than will its official rival. How the Commission reacts to closer coverage will prove a serious test of its openness. In the coverage of political parties, Abdukhalikov’s goal for the new network is to force them to differentiate themselves from the government and from each other. In practice, this will mean defining where they differ from the presidential line, as well as where they agree with it. STV has begun by interviewing regional candidates and asking them to respond to call-in questions from voters. All this provides a test of the parties’ readiness to engage in genuine parliamentary life. As Abdukhalikov puts it, “As journalists we must familiarize society with the problems it faces and with non-governmental means of solving them. We intend to speak boldly and to sharpen the exchange between the new and the old, both now and in the future.” Will NTT align itself with one party or another? Both Abdukhalikov and Sharipov are members of the Fidokorlar (“Self-Sacrifice”) Party, the former having been a deputy in parliament since the party’s founding in 1998 and the latter being a regional party leader. Both will run for parliament in December. At the same time, it is expected that many, if not most, of the owners of private TV and radio stations, and of the new NTT, will be drawn to the new and well-funded Liberal Democratic Party, as it presents itself as the party of entrepreneurs.

CONCLUSIONS: It is too early to say whether the establishment of a nation-wide private TV network in Uzbekistan represents a step in the direction of openness and public participation in decision-making, or simply more of the same. However, the stated intentions of the new network is to sharpen the political exchange among parties and candidates and to engage the public in this exchange. This gives reason to believe that a new stage has been reached in Uzbekistan. Expect the intentions of the new network to be implemented with all the gradualism and caution that one expects from Uzbek public life. However, the new NTT network appears set to change the country’s information culture, with implications also for foreign news outlets. STV already maintains contact with VOA’s Uzbek Service and Deutsche Welle. It is likely that NTT will become a major supplier of independent information on that country to the international media.

AUTHOR’S BIO: S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Johns Hopkins University-SAIS