The Media Council, which was first proposed by President Askar Akaev at a public gathering this summer and announced on September 13, consists of six journalists and three well-known public figures. Its clause says: “The Media council is a voluntary corporate body created for the purpose of regulating the work of the mass media”. The council, which is described as a regulatory body, aims to deal with the press disputes and to arbitrate in conflicts involving media. It also intends to protect journalists’ rights, raise their professionalism and strengthen independence of media outlets.

The creation of the Media Council has generated different opinions among Kyrgyzstani journalists and public figures. The Director of the National news agency “Kabar” Kubanychbek Taabaldiev says that the formation of such an authority as Media Council points at improvements in the Kyrgyz media industry. According to him, such councils exists in developed countries and function as a public mechanism. The Council is a new way of solving conflicts involving media outlets, Taabaldiev added. The President’s press-secretary Abdil Segizbaev is of a similar opinion. According to him, the Media council has a very important role in dealing with press disputes as it will address them without the involvement of courts. Evgeny Denisenko, from the Vecherny Bishkek newspaper, in his interview to IWPR said that he believes the council is an advisory body, which will provide journalists with “help in any difficult situation”.

However, while the President’s administration and a number of media outlets have been strong supporters of the Media Council, the idea of creating such a body has from the outset prompted opposition among others, especially among independent journalists and opposition newspapers. In the opinion of the Chief Editor of the opposition newspaper “Moya-Stolitsa Novosti” Aleksandr Kim, the formation of the Media Council is another tool for the government to control independent newspapers and to suppress the freedom of the press. According to Kim, moreover, the creation of the council contradicts the country’s legislation and it does not have any legal power. Alexei Sukhov, a journalist from the southern province of Osh, in an interview to IWPR expressed concerns about the way the Media council had been formed. In his opinion, the process of establishing this authority was not open to public, mainly pro-governmental mass media took part in the process and most of the independent media outlets were left out of discussions.

Representatives of international organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in their turn, questioned the credibility of the Media Council and have been skeptical about its potential and future possibilities. At a conference held in Bishkek recently, the OSCE’s press freedom representative Freimut Duve said that the Council should have been created at the initiative of journalists, not of the country’s leadership.

Meanwhile, in spite of credibility questions and suspicions, the Media Council has started its activity and as the first thing it conducted a special survey among media outlets of the country. According to the Head of the Council Aktan Abdykalykov, journalists in Kyrgyzstan today are concerned about three things: improvement of the working conditions of the media; improvement of the legislation concerning mass media; and raising the level of professionalism among journalists. However, it is not known what kind of measures will be taken in order to address these concerns. Nevertheless, addressing them would be more meaningful for Kyrgyz media than merely arbitrating among conflicting parties, which by itself will not solve the problem of continuing lawsuits, some local observers suggest.