Tajikistan’s Media Council
The basic principles of mass media and journalism in Tajikistan are honesty, objectivity, fairness, pluralism and respect for human rights.
Support to journalists who are establishing a media-self-regulation body requires sensitivity to history, political and economic context, law governing freedom of expression and association, as well as familiarity with labour relations practice and any safeguards for the security and safety of reporters. It also requires stepping back and leaving the decision-making to the media community who will articulate the values, design the rule and enforce the self-regulation process that will govern their work.
Journalists in Tajikistan began the process in 1999 and, after ten years of discussions on what it means to be a free and responsible media community, the majority of practicing journalists agreed in October 2009 to abide by the collectively-drafted Ethical Norms of Journalistic Activity in Tajikistan and formally to establish a media-self regulation body, the Tajik Media Council. OSCE helped by providing best practice models from other participating States. The code of ethics sets out rules on accuracy, protection of information sources, integrity regarding commercial interests and respect for privacy and personal dignity – all of these the kinds of issues for which journalists often find themselves summoned to court.
After one and a half years of operation, the Tajik Media Council is still a fledgling institution. It adjudicates violations of the code of ethics and has heard several dozen complaints, making its judgments public and thus following the procedure laid down in its founding charter. The Tajik Media Council also offers itself as a venue for resolving media disputes out of court.
Years of preparation
Nuriddin Karshiboev, the head of the National Association of Independent Media in Tajikistan and an elected member of the Tajik Media Council board, has been involved in discussions of media ethics in Tajikistan from the beginning. “Our first discussions revolved around an ethical code that Ibragim Usmonov, who is now head of the Tajik Media Council. [note: on12 April 2011 Usmonov resigned for health reasons], wrote in 1999. Of course, given the extreme conditions under which journalists were working after the civil war, it was not easy to interest them in the ethical problems of accepting money for content. Once the economic situation improved a little, things got better,” he recalls
Several attempts to draft a code of ethics foundered until journalists themselves felt empowered to define their own standards and agendas. Discussions in 2003 and 2007 opened up areas for heated discussion, including on the role of the state in establishing standards for the journalism profession. "Journalists rightly asked in what capacity a state-affiliated body could propose norms for media self-regulation," Karshiboev recounted.
The years of deliberation and creative controversy bore fruit. In December 2008, the OSCE, in cooperation with the Deutsche Welle Academy, organized a study trip to Berlin for a group of leading media representatives. It was a chance to see how the German Press Council, an internationally recognized best practice model in Europe, works and to discuss plans for developing an ethical code with German colleagues. “We did not come to the discussion empty handed, says Karshiboev. “We knew how we wanted to address issues in the Tajikistan context, and we tried to harmonize this with international norms.”
When the group returned, they formed a larger working group, also facilitated by the OSCE. They considered input not only from Germany, but also from Bulgaria and other eastern European countries, and hammered out what is now the Ethical Norms of Journalistic Activity in Tajikistan
Overcoming scepticism
About 60 media representatives attended the founding session of the Tajik Media Council on 30 October 2009. Each of them could propose one person as a candidate for the Council. Twenty candidates were nominated, and out of these, nine were elected as councillors.
One of the most debated questions was how to regulate the councillors’ terms of office. If the Media Council was to attract members, it would have to dispel widespread scepticism in this regard. The matter was sensitive because some considered that a long term of office could make the Media Council appear as an instrument of limitation and censorship.
“At the beginning, we were against the idea of the Media Council,” comments Khurshed Niyosov, chief editor of the newspaper Farash and General Secretary of the Media Alliance of Tajikistan. “We were inclined to regard any institutionalized code of ethics as an excuse for censorship. Only later, after we had studied the ethical code and the mechanism, did we decide to sign up.”
In the end, a rotation system was adopted, in which three new councillors are elected every year. All elected councils are working voluntarily supported by a small executive body of four members. Only one member gets a full-time salary. The Tajik Media Council, which now works out of an office in the Newspaper and Magazine Publishing Complex in Dushanbe, keeps running costs low. Its long-term goal is that the members of the media self-regulation system will take over the costs. In March, the Tajik Media Council informed members and the public that it would begin the collection of membership fees.
Early results
With OSCE Office support to its first year of formal operation, the Tajik Media Council has been provided with expertise and training opportunities that have enabled it to promote professional ethics in Tajik journalism. In 2010, an additional 15 media outlets signed up to the mechanism and agreed to its code of ethics. More than 230 journalists discussed professional ethics in 13 media self-regulation body open meetings held in Dushanbe, Istaravshan, Khujand, Kanibadam, Isfara, Kurgan-Teppe and Kulyab.
It will take some time for the Media Council to develop the clout to become the main regulation body for media disputes in Tajikistan. Of the first 20 alleged ethics violation cases it received, the Media Council rejected ten as without foundation and ruled on ten others, including on an allegation of violation of personal dignity, in which it called upon the newspaper in question to apologize.
Shahlo Akobirova, a broadcast journalist and the director of the media development organization Khoma, considers the Tajik Media Council and OSCE efforts to support it a success. But she points to important challenges ahead. “The mechanism still faces the major problem that the industry in Tajikistan is weak. Media are lacking in means, and that makes them vulnerable,” she says.
Another problem Akobirova sees is that the Media Council has so far attracted mainly independent media, and not enough state media. More state media among its members would raise its credibility in the eyes of the government. That could lead to more out of court settlements.
Some of the decisions of the Media Council during the last half year elicited very critical reactions. “This may be painful”, says Akobirova, “but, for a discussion of ethical norms, perhaps normal – part of a healthy process, and maybe a sign of change.”