Voice of America
December 19

The Voice of America's Uzbek Service has launched its first-ever TV feed to affiliate stations in Uzbekistan. Four affiliate stations–Channel 30 in Tashkent, Aloka TV in Gulistan, Turtkul TV in Turtkul, and Bakhtior TV in Dzhizak–are already broadcasting the reports, and more are expected to join them.

The importance of the new TV feeds was highlighted recently when Uzbekistan's President Islom Karimov told U.S. Senator Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator Richard Lugar that Uzbeks want more news and information about America and the West. In a speech last September when Senator Lugar represented President Bush at the conference on Fighting Terrorism for Humanity, Senator Lugar said, "Americans do understand that we have a moral responsibility to foster the concepts of political and religious freedom, economic opportunity, free enterprise, the rule of law, and democracy. They understand that these values, which have been the basis of our own society, are the hope of people all over the world."

Said VOA Director David Jackson: "Our new Uzbek-language TV feeds and radio broadcasts will help carry these values to the region. They will reach a broader audience than any other means available to the U.S. government."

According to a 2001 research survey conducted by InterMedia, 61.9 percent of Uzbeks say that TV is an extremely important source of information, 20.3 percent say that it is important.

VOA has begun feeds of a five-to-six minute feature, Scenes from America, which covers lifestyle and entertainment, travel and history, and science, agriculture and technology developments to TV affiliate stations in Uzbekistan Tuesday through Saturday at 0420 UTC. On Mondays at 1030 UTC, VOA feeds the 30-minute Exploring America, which is a compilation of the shorter five-to-six minute feature stories. Local affiliates will record the VOA programming for later broadcast to their audiences.

Navbahor Imamova, the anchor and producer for VOA's Uzbek TV programming, has worked as a journalist and producer in the International News Division of Uzbek Radio and the Uzbek TV and Broadcasting Company.

VOA's Uzbek Service broadcasts three and a half hours a week on radio and one hour a week on TV.

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of 94 million people. Programs are produced in English and 54 other languages.

UzLand.Info commentary - It is of course a great event that VOA Television can feed its Uzbek-language programming to Uzbekistan. However there are two BUTs.

First, VOA TV will only air to four affiliate stations in Uzbekistan, all of which are stations located in regions of less importance except for Channel 30 (capital Tashkent). Besides, the combined number of their viewers doesn't even make up 20% of the total number of the Uzbek TV audience.

The second BUT is that the programming will be about the United States and not the VOA TV's perspective about Uzbekistan. Considering the fact that Voice of America is financed through US Congress, it is hard to see that Uzbek viewers can get the same kind of information about the US domestic policy that one would get from FOX or CBS networks inside the United States.

If the intention of VOA Television is to educate the Muslims of Uzbekistan about the United States policy and change their attitude towards America for better, then VOA TV should broadcast its programs to the Ferghana Valley, the stronghold of political Islam.

And if the intention of the Uzbek government is to allow for the variety of opinions and fulfill Uzbekistan's commitment before the United States for greater freedom of speech, then the Uzbek government should allow the Uzbek service of VOA Radio to broadcast on medium or FM waves within Uzbekistan rather than on short-waves that has been VOA's dream since 1992.

But in general, it is the first move and the first move is always better than nothing.

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