By Gulnura Toralieva
An unstable political situation caused by two revolutions, one of which took place in 2005 and the other one just several weeks ago is one of the reasons why environment is not on the agenda.
The social and economic conditions of the people are the main topics covered by journalists. They are reluctant to cover environmental issues because the people living in extreme poverty cannot think about the environment, said Marat Tokoev, chairman of the Public Association Journalists (PAJ), a union for journalists.
Marat Tokoev
Because of small staff numbers and scanty earnings, journalists concentrate on producing analytical materials, news, and comments on all the topics without any limitations. This usually affects the quality of journalistic output, Tokoev added.
“There are two different types of environmental reporters: One of them doesn’t have a deep knowledge of the environment and the other one does but does not have the necessary journalistic skills for good reporting,” he said.
Kyrgyz journalists have a very narrow conception of what to report on. Most of the material is about pollution of Issyk Kul lake, toxic waste and domestic waste. Few of them write about global warming and land degradation.
“Poor quality of journalistic education became the talk of the town. There are no steps to improve it. Few journalism graduates want to pursue a career as a journalist. Those who came to the real world of journalism are retrained. Why should we discuss the environmental reporting that requires more specific knowledge, when journalists can not elementarily formulate their thoughts?” said Tokoev.
According to Tokoev, this occurred because the journalism schools still train students under the Soviet system, which is more theoretical than practical. Old standards do not stress the need for internships. Another problem is the absence of professional experience among professors who are mostly historians, linguists or people with a more cultural background. They never practice journalism themselves. There are about 20 universities in the country that train future journalists, but only two of them manage to do it in a proper way.
“Kyrgyz authorities think they will not benefit if journalists will report on environmental issues too. It will make people excited and angry that so many problems are not resolved and may affect their lives. The government has no money to mitigate environmental hazards and doesn’t want the people to know about them. That is why there is a big problem for journalists to get access to necessary information. There are hidden efforts not to let materials on environment appear in the media. Mass media is often intimidated not to publish materials on environment,” said Tokoev.