DUSHANBE, July 2, 2009, Asia-Plus — Ongoing financial crisis has forced a number of media in the provinces to temporarily suspend their activities, participants at a July 2 roundtable meeting entitled “Media under Conditions of Financial Crisis” remarked.
According to editor-in-chief of the Dushanbe independent weekly
SSSR
Sayof Mizrob, the majority of newspapers in Khatlon province are published “just occasionally.” “In Khatlon, the majority of newspapers are published just ahead of any holiday and on occasion of any jubilee”, said Mizrob, “The majority of periodical publications in the province are the state-run ones and because of the financial crisis, local authorities have stopped financing them. However, the Khatlon periodicals were in a very poor state before the crisis as well.”
Speaking at the meeting editor-in-chief of the weekly
Badakhshon
Jonibek Qozibekov noted that some newspapers in Gorno Badakhshan had also been temporarily suspended for financial reasons before the crisis. “For example, the newspaper
Bomi Jahon
has not been published for already more than a year,” Qozibekov said, noting that the crisis had just worsened the media situation in the province.
According to journalists from Khatlon and Gorno Badakhshan, the media situation in the province is getting worse from year to year.
Journalists from Sughd province, Mahmoudjon Dadaboyev, noted that the media situation in northern Tajikistan was also uneasy. However, he stressed that local media were taking anti-crisis measures, developing various programs. “Thus, the Khujand independent TV station
SM-1
and the city independent radio station
Tiroz
have developed such programs,” Dadaboyev said.
Organized by Tajik Journalists’ Union and the Tajik Branch of Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan), the meeting brought together representatives of electronic and print media from all regions of the country to discuss issues related to mitigation of effects of the global financial crisis on Tajik media and strategy of supporting media under conditions of the crisis.
