2017 Kyrgyz Presidential Elections in Domestic Media: An Analysis of the Contents of 24.kg

Öz

The Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan has, for long, been regarded as an ‘island of democracy’. Compared to neighbouring countries, civil society and media are more plural here and has relatively more freedom. It is also the only country from the region to be considered ‘partly free’ by the Freedom House. In October 2017, Kyrgyz Republic witnessed an unprecedented Presidential election for a peaceful transition. Elections can be a good time to not only assess the democratic institutions of any country but also study the status and functions of the media. This paper analyzes the coverage of the 2017 presidential elections of Kyrgyzstan in a domestic news agency (24.kg) to empirically and qualitatively understand the state of the mediascape there. Using critical discourse analysis, I studied the election coverage to understand the larger context of news, and the role media played in the public sphere of the Kyrgyz Republic and concluded that media industry suffered from economic dependence as well as the lack of culture of plural polity. Even private media helped in agenda-setting through ‘dominant reading’ of texts. Paid news was rampant while, at the same time, they self-censored themselves, consciously avoiding critical articles or any investigative pieces, particularly against the government for fear of attracting title suits and persecutions, and more importantly losing sponsors.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Central Asia
• Kyrgyzstan
• Election
• Media
• 24.kg
• Critical Discourse

2017 Kyrgyz Presidential Elections in Domestic Media: An Analysis of the Contents of 24.kg

Öz

Orta Asya cumhuriyetlerinden Kırgızistan uzun zamandır "demokrasi adası" olarak görülmektedir. Komşu ülkelere kıyasla, burada sivil toplum ve medya daha çoğulcudur ve nispeten daha fazla özgürlüğe sahiptir. Freedom House tarafından "kısmen özgür" olarak değerlendirilen bölgedeki tek ülkedir. Ekim 2017'de Kırgız Cumhuriyeti, barışçıl bir geçiş için benzeri görülmemiş bir Cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimine tanık oldu. Seçimler, herhangi bir ülkenin demokratik kurumlarını değerlendirmek için iyi bir zaman olabileceği gibi, medyanın durumu ve işlevlerini incelemek için de fırsat sağlar. Bu makale, Kırgızistan'daki 2017 Cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimlerinin yerel bir haber ajansında (24.kg) nasıl ele alındığını analiz ederek, medyanın oradaki durumunu ampirik ve niteliksel olarak anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Eleştirel söylem analizi kullanarak, seçim haberlerini inceleyerek, haberlerin genel bağlamını ve medyanın Kırgız Cumhuriyeti'nin kamusal alanındaki rolünü anlamaya çalıştım ve medya sektörünün ekonomik bağımlılıktan ve çoğulcu politika kültürünün eksikliğinden muzdarip olduğu sonucuna vardım. Özel medya bile metinlerin "egemen okuması" yoluyla gündem belirlemeye yardımcı oldu. Ücretli haberler yaygındı ve aynı zamanda, özellikle hükümete karşı herhangi bir eleştirel makaleyi veya araştırmacı yazıyı bilinçli olarak kaçınarak, dava açma ve zulüm korkusu ve daha da önemlisi sponsor kaybetme endişesiyle kendilerini sansürlediler.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Orta Asya
• Kırgızistan
• medya
• seçim
• 24.kg
• söylem analizi

Kaynakça

1. Anceschi, L. (2011). Reinforcing Authoritarianism through Media Control: the Case of Post-Soviet Turkmenistan. In E. Freedman & R. Shafer (Eds), After the Czars and Commissars: Journalism in Authoritarian Post-Soviet Central Asia (pp. 59-78). East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
2. Blommaert, J., & Bulcaen, C. ( 2000). Critical Discourse Analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 1 (October): 447-466. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.447 .
3. Buxton, C. (2011). The Struggle for Civil Society in Central Asia: Crisis and Transformation. Sterling VA: Kumarian Press.
4. Buxton, C. (2015). In Good Times and Hard Times: Civil Society Roles in Kyrgyzstan Today. . In C. E. Ziegler (Ed.), Civil Society and Politics in Central Asia (pp. 233-234). Kentucky: The University Press Kentucky.
5. Doraiswamy, R. (2019). Media and Issues of Identity in Central Asia. Journal of International and Area Studies, No. 1 (Forthcoming). New Delhi: Academy of International Studies, JMI.
6. Eurasianet.org (2018). Kyrgyzstan: As Political Winds Change, Iconic Newspaper Again Tussled Over (31 October). https://eurasianet.org/kyrgyzstan-as-political-winds-change-iconic-newspaper-again-tussled-over.
7. Fairclough, N. (2006). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
8. Freedman, E. (2005). Coverage of the Central Asian Political, Press, and Speech Rights Issues by Independent News Websites. Asia Pacific Media Educator 1(16) (December): 71-88. http://ro.uow.edu.au/apme/vol1/iss16/10/ .

9. Freedom House. Freedom in the World 2017 (Report). Accessed February 13, 2017, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2017 .
10. Gross, P., & Kenny, T. (2011). Journalistic Self-Censorship and the Tajik Press in the Context of Central Asia. In Freedman and Shafer (Eds.), After the Czars and Commissars (pp. 123-139).
11. Haghayeghi, M. (1995). Media and Politics in Central Asia. Demokratizatsiya – The International Journal on Post-Soviet Democratization 3:2 (Spring): 215-227. http://demokratizatsiya.pub/archives/03-2_Haghayeghi.PDF.
12. Herd, G.P., & Ryabkov, M. (2015). State, Civil Society Actors, and Political Instabilities in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan: The Changing International Context. In C. E. Ziegler (Ed.), Civil Society and Politics in Central Asia (pp. 311-331). Kentucky: The University Press Kentucky.
13. Iakupbaeva, Z. (2017). Kyrgyzstan: A Haven for Reporters amid Love and Strife. Eurasianet.org (February 22). http://www.eurasianet.org/node/82536.
14. Junisbai, B. (2011). Oligarchs and Ownership: The Role of Financial-Industrial Groups in Controlling Kazakhstan’s ‘Independent’ Media. In Freedman and Shafer (Eds.), After the Czars and Commissars (pp. 35-58).
15. Junisbai, B., Junisba, A. & Fry, N.Y. (2015). Mass Media Consumption in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan: The View from Below. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 23( 3) (Summer): 233-256. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/587595/pdf.
16. Juraev, A. (2002). The Uzbek Mass Media Model: Analysis, Opinions, Problems. Central Asia and the Caucasus 13(1): 130-138, http://www.ca-c.org/journal/2002/journal_eng/cac-01/16.juren.shtml.
17. Juraev, S. (2008). Kyrgyz Democracy? The Tulip Revolution and Beyond. Central Asian Survey 27(3-4): 253-264. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930802536464.
18. Kenny, T., & Gross, P. (2008). Journalism in Central Asia: A Victim of Politics, Economics, and Wide-spread Self-censorship. The International Journal of Press/Politics 13(4) (October): 515-525, https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161208324644 .
19. Kulikova, S.V., & Perlmutter, D.D. (2011). Blogging Down the Dictator? In Freedman and Shafer (Eds.), After the Czars and Commissars (pp. 263-286).
20. Lewis, D. (2008). The Dynamics of Regime Change: Domestic and International Factors in the ‘Tulip Revolution’. Central Asian Survey 27(3-4): 265-277. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930802536514.
21. McNair, B. (1991). Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Media. London: Routledge.
22. Reyaz, M. (2014). Post-Soviet Media in Central Asia: With Special Focus on Coverage of Presidential Elections of Kyrgyzstan. In S. Chatterjee (Ed.), Image of the Region in Eurasian Studies (pp. 135-153). New Delhi: K W Publishers.
23. Rollberg, P., & Laruelle, M. (2015). The Media Landscape in Central Asia: Introduction to the Special Issue. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 23(3) (Summer): 227-232. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/587594.
24. Siebert, F. S., Peterson, T., & Schramm, W. (1963). Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
25. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index. Accessed November 18, 2018, https://infographics.economist.com/2018/DemocracyIndex/ .
26. The International Research & Exchanges Board (IRX). Annual Media Sustainability Index (MSI) for years 2010 to 2017, https://www.irex.org/resource/media-sustainability-index-msi.
27. Wodak, R. (2011). Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. In J. Zienkowski, J.O. Östman, J. Verschueren, & J. Benjamins (Eds.), Discursive Pragmatics (pp. 50-70). Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V. https://doi.org/10.1075/hoph.8.04wod .
28. Wodak. R. (2011). Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. In J. Zienkowski, J. O. Östman, J. Verschueren,, and J. Benjamins (Eds)., Discursive Pragmatics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 50-70, https://doi.org/10.1075/hoph.8.04wod.
29. Ziegler, C.E. (2015). Introduction. In C. E. Ziegler (Ed.), Civil Society and Politics in Central Asia (pp. 1-18). Kentucky: The University Press Kentucky.
30. Слово Кыргызстана (n.d.). О газете. Accessed October 20, 2017, http://slovo.kg/?page_id=9 .