To mark this last-ever edition of our EurasiaChat podcast, we decided to take a glance at the health of the media scene across Central Asia.

The report card does not make for encouraging reading.

Peter Leonard, Eurasianet’s Central Asia editor, kicked things off with Kyrgyzstan, which has been the site of some troubling developments of late.

In the latest alarming sign of decline, a court there last week ruled to dissolve independent media outlet Kloop, which has gained particular prominence for its numerous hard-hitting investigative reports into corruption.

Prosecutors argued that the outlet’s reporting is having a negative effect on the public’s mental health and driving many to take drugs and engage in sexually depraved behavior.

But as Peter and co-presenter Alisher Khamidov noted, this is part of a broader worsening in the state of civil society in the country. This issue was the subject of an Amnesty International statement published on February 8.

Lawmakers started laying the traps early on in the tenure of President Sadyr Japarov.

Kloop has fallen in part prey to a 2021 Law on Protection from False Information, which gave the Culture Ministry the power to order the removal of any publications deemed to contain "false information" without requiring a judicial order. The legislation raised concerns among international observers and domestic civil society about the potential for misuse against journalists and media organizations.

Their fears have been proven right.

Uzbekistan has a different narrative. Not necessarily better, but different.

There was actually good news of sorts earlier this month when a court ordered that Otabek Sattoriy, a citizen journalist in Uzbekistan who had been sentenced to serve more than six years in prison on extortion and libel charges in 2021, be released.

In his part of the country, down in southern Uzbekistan, Sattoriy was among the more prominent practitioners of a genre of citizen journalism – popularly known as blogging – that has emerged since President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to office in 2016.

The authorities have been caught on the hop by the blogging boom.

As Alisher explained, they have fought something of a rear-guard battle of late against the more troublesome figures through prosecution and by trying to cast them as untrustworthy muckrakers and extortionists.

Kazakhstan too, like Kyrgyzstan, has tried to wrestle with a near-ungovernable social media scene by legislating to give itself the ultimate right to determine the difference between truth and fact. Indeed, the situation there feels like a cross between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Under a law adopted in July, people found to be using social media to disseminate anything deemed to be disinformation could be liable for punishment.

Critics at the time were consternated.

“What is false information?” asked one. “There is no clear definition in the law, anything can be included in theory, so this could be an attempt to introduce self-censorship.”

As Peter argued, this is a problem very much of the government’s own making. Through a combination of censorship for the malcontents and subsidies for the loyalists, the authorities have cultivated a sclerotic media scene. The result is that many rely for news and opinions on a wild social media space that those same authorities now want to suffocate with the la

Dastur, a newly released horror movie in Kazakhstan, has been smashing box office records.

And so, in this latest edition of our EurasiaChat podcast, we decided to speak to our producer, Aigerim Toleukhanova, to find out what all the fuss is about.

First, the plot: the narrative revolves around the fallout that ensues after the wild-child son of a rich businessman rapes a school-leaver walking home after the last day of classes. Her family initially reports the crime to the police. But then social pressure kicks in. To paper over the scandal, the mayor brokers a deal for the girl to marry her assailant.

What follows is a descent into madness and horror that lays bare all manner of decay at the heart of Kazakh society.

As Aigerim explained, it was this unflinching aspect that made Dastur an unlikely holiday season hit.

“The reason why it was so popular … is that the timing was right,” Aigerim said. “The country has had a lot of shocking news about gender violence.”

The topic of gender-based violence is particularly resonant in Kazakhstan at the moment, following the killing in November of Saltanat Nukenova in a restaurant in Astana. Her husband Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former government minister, is in jail awaiting trial for the murder, which dominated the headlines for weeks.

Another seemingly irresolvable aspect of life in Kazakhstan is industrial disputes.

This week, Alisher Khamidov walked us through a situation that has been unfolding in the Mangystau province, which has been the site of numerous confrontations between oil workers and their employers over the years.

In the first half of December, around 500 workers at an oil services company called West Oil Software went on strike. Their demand was to be employed in subsidiaries of the state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, which they believe would secure them more secure conditions and higher salaries. The company has since fired several dozen people, but the hardcore strikers are holding out.

These disputes are always about more than just the troubles of any single company, though.

Alisher reminded listeners that the government inevitably views such developments with unease as memories of the bloody culmination of the 2011 Zhanazon protests are still fresh.

Eurasianet’s Central Asia editor Peter Leonard, meanwhile, broadened the conversation to consider what these standoffs say about how the state is dealing with its western Kazakhstan predicament. This part of the country is rich in oil and gas, but the local economy remains underdeveloped and signally unable to meet the growing demands of a fast-expanding population.

Finally in this edition of EurasiaChat, we turned to the increasingly alarming situation around media freedoms in Kyrgyzstan. 

Readers of this website will know that two separate outlets in Bishkek were last week subjected to raids by the security services and the police in quick succession. These events are troubling, although almost certainly not unexpected.

“We journalists, we are operating in this mindset that we're still a somewhat free country,” Alisher said, speaking from Bishkek. “But the reality is different. I think that officials are operating in a different mode… Journalists need to quickly recognize that there's no more freedoms here in this country.”

Kyrgyzstan opened this New Year with a slightly new-look flag. 

The changes were not, in truth, that great. The colors and the sun-like figure at the center of the standard remained more or less the same.

But President Sadyr Japarov, who chivvied lawmakers into proposing this initiative in September, said the sun emblem needed to look less like a sunflower, which he believes to symbolize subservience and weakness.

But the details are probably beside the point, as Alisher Khamidov argued in our latest edition of the EurasiaChat podcast.

“This president is trying to send a strong message: ‘Look this is a very important nation-building gesture … I'm in charge,’” Khamidov said.

Indeed, the flag saga, which descended into farce in the first few days of the month, is part of a broader piece.

Alisher and co-presenter Peter Leonard dwelled on this theme in brief, but it is worth checking out a fuller examination of these developments published in Eurasianet last month. 

Much attention in Uzbekistan, meanwhile, has been focused on the publication in December of the Program for International Student Assessment report produced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The reported ranked Uzbekistan in the group of bottom ten nations as assessed on the educational achievements of its schoolchildren in mathematics, reading and science literacy. 

This has plunged many into a state of despondency about what this means for the country’s future. The bullish reactions of officials to these findings are far from reflecting popular consensus views.

Alisher said that the disappointment is being felt particularly acutely because so much has been invested in trying to enhance the quality of secondary education in Uzbekistan.

“The PISA test results are a wake-up call for the administration [of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev],” Alisher said.

Turkmenistan is a country that likes to keep information close to its chest, but not when it comes to its would-be achievements. Former President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been in particularly ebullient form of late following back-to-back successes registered by a soccer team named after him.

Arkadag — the name is derived from an honorific meaning “patron of the nation” — was created to represent the eponymous city willed into existence last year by Berdymukhamedov. Despite only having been created last year, the team, which was created by raiding the top talents from other premier league peers, has already won its first title and bagged the Turkmenistan Football Cup in late December.

In a message of self-congratulation, Berdymukhamedov predicted that Arkadag would now surely go on to achieve success in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League, known as ACL, and even in FIFA club world cup, a format for which no Central Asian team has ever managed to qualify.

But the road may be running out for Berdymukhamedov’s delusions. While Arkadag has clearly been allowed to win in domestic competitions, they will not be afforded the same benefit once they compete internationally.

“When you're inside your own little bubble, illusions are fine .. but there's always a point when you can have come up and bump up against reality,” Peter said on the EurasiaChat podcast. “Berdymukhamedov senior is … going to realize next season that actually you can't bluff your way into winning everything.”