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10 ERIC FREEDMAN and corruption, as well as the presence of independent media. In 2010, for example, the organization found slightly improved media conditions in Tajikistan but deteriorating conditions in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; the situation remained abysmally unchanged in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (table 2). The media aspect of the ratings is based on legal protections for press freedom; protection of journalists from victimization; state opposition to onerous defamation laws and excessive legal penalties; editorial independence; diverse selection of sources of information; the degree of private ownership and lack of excessive ownership concentration; financial viability of private media; private control of newspaper distribution; viable professional organizations for journalists; and access to a diversity of opinions on the Internet without government controls. Yet it is not enough to look solely at press rights or, more generally, at human TABLE 1. FREEDOM INDICES FOR CENTRAL ASIA REPUBLICS TAJIKISTAN UZBEKISTAN KYRGYZSTAN TURKMENISTAN KAZAKHSTAN Indicators Overall Freedom Index* Not free Not free Not free Not free Not free Press Freedom* Not free Not free Not free Not free Not free Variables Muslim population† 90% 88% 75% 89% 47% Russian population† 1.10% 5.50% 12.50% 4% 30% GDP per capita* $1,870 $2,660 $2,150 $6,130 $9,720 Internet penetration rate‡ 9.30% 16.80% 39.80% 1.60% 34.30% source: *Freedom House, 2010; †U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2010; ‡Internet World Stats, 2010. TABLE 2. MEDIA INDEPENDENCE RATINGS IN CENTRAL ASIA, 19992000 THROUGH 2010 19992000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Kazakhstan 5.5 6 6 6.25 6.5 6.5 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.5 6.75 Kyrgyzstan 5 5 5.75 6 6 5.75 5.75 5.75 6 6.25 6.5 Tajikistan 5.75 5.5 5.75 5.75 5.75 6 6.25 6.25 6 6 5.75 Turkmenistan 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Uzbekistan 6.5 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 6.75 7 7 7 7 7 Scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of democratic progress source: Freedom House, Nations in Transit, 2010. THE ROLES OF THE PRESS IN CENTRAL ASIA 11 rights. “Democratic journalism, no matter its specifics, is not viable as long as states are unable to meet some of its key obligations” (Waisbord 2007, 116). Thus it is also essential to consider other metrics of instability in the region. They include state cohesion and performance, as measured in the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy Failed States Index (2010) and corruption, as gauged in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (2009). The Failed States Index places Uzbekistan in the least sustainable, or “Alert,” category. The other four republics are classified in the “Warning” category, the second-most at risk, based on twelve social, economic, and political indicators. One such indicator is “suspension or arbitrary application of the rule of law and widespread violation of human rights, including harassment of the press.” With New Zealand ranked at 1 and Somalia ranked 180 (at the bottom), the Corruption Perceptions Index places Kazakhstan at 120, Tajikistan at 158, Kyrgyzstan at 162, Turkmenistan at 168, and Uzbekistan at 174. Prospects for achieving a free, economically sustainable, ethically conscious, and publicly credible press remain dim for the foreseeable future. Even moments of hope have proven transitory. For example, an anticipated and hoped-for surge of participatory government and media freedom in Kyrgyzstan a er the 2005 Tulip Revolution fizzled and died as the new regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev recreated the pervasive corruption, favoritism, autocracy, and distaste for dissent that marked the ousted regime of Askar Akayev. Bakiyev, in turn, was ousted in an April 2010 coup, but it is too soon to gauge the new leadership’s commitment to press freedom. The intersection of regimes, professional journalists, and university-level journalism educators is at the heart of several chapters of this book. Olivia Allison’s “Loyalty in the New Authoritarian Model: Journalistic Rights and Duties in Central Asian Media Law” asks whether the principle of loyalty remains central in media law and its enforcement and assesses the role of loyalty in official restraints on the media. Co-editor Eric Freedman’s chapter, “Journalists at Risk: The Human Impact of Press Constraints,” goes beyond the formalities of statutes and constitutions to spotlight high-profile cases of assassination, assault, disappearance, self-exile...

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