TV Pandora’s Box – Nazarbaeva
Who deprived Kazakhstan of its own information space, and what will be the result?
“The next stop is Central Asian Federal District” – this was the title for the discussion of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s speech in Lomonosov University at “Rain” (Dozhd’) TV channel. The very phrase “Central Asian Federal District” belongs to the odious politician V. Zhirinovsky, and the discussion at “Rain” was focused on why Russia and Kazakhstan were integrating into the European Union, was there any chance of “little green men” appearance in the North Caucasian district, and it was mentioned that Kazakhstan was already a part of Russian information space. The last phrase, in my opinion, is the key one for today, and deserves special attention.
The majority of Kazakhstan citizens can speak Russian and watch Russian TV. Let’s not delve into what it is like– propagandistic or patriotic– this is the question every viewer answers by himself/ herself, basing on his/her own political views and taste preferences. Let’s ask the following questions: Why no own information space has been established in Kazakhstan for the 23 years of independence? Was there any background? And, finally, what does the habit of the entire state to consume an information product of another one may lead to?
In late 80-s, with a diploma of economist, I went to work at Kazgosteleradio as assistant director. What was Kazgosteleradio like at that time? It was a huge organization – 6,000 employees plus a well-developed regional network: 18 regional broadcasters, 3 city and 70 district editorial offices. Among the drawbacks there was obsolete equipment, low salaries of the employees, and subsidized financing – Kazgosteleradio consumed 10% of the republican budget. It was the condition it went to independent Kazakhstan.
During the first years of independence, the government had no time to take any measures with respect to Gosteleradio. It was a period of freedom and voluntarism with a strong flavor of anarchy. The Kazakh broadcasting was headed by the writer Sherkhan Murtaz being an authority. It must be noted that it was quite not pro-Nazarbaev. The Russian broadcasting was also very bristling. At the same time, there was no general TV concept: someone just made money on advertizing and put it in the pocket, someone realized his/her own creative vision to the extent he/she could.
In 91 I established and launched my own TV broadcaster – TAN. As TANs head in 93 I was present at Nursultan Nazarbaev’s meeting with journalists. At the press conference I asked President a question, which then changed my life a lot. I was interested in the matter of frequency distribution and how it would be executed at the legislative level. Nursultan Nazarbaev was not ready to answer, because at that moment he knew nothing about TV specificity. Nazarbaev asked me to stay. After the press conference I told him that since Russian military men were leaving, there would be additional frequencies, and it would be good and right to use them for Kazakh TV and radio broadcasting. He listened and asked to represent everything in writing.
As a result Nazarbaev’s apparatus got my project of Kazgosteleradio reformation and establishment on its basis of Public Television financed from the budget and non-budgetary sources. In April of 94, Nursultan Nazarbaev by his decree appointed me President of Kazakhstan Corporation “TV/Radio Broadcasting in the Republic of Kazakhstan” with the minister’s rights. With like-minded group I elaborated the project and the respective legislative acts. In the same period the first corporation – the Republican Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation of Kazakhstan was legally established in the country. It allowed for switching the subsidized Gostelerdio to the principles of democracy and market economy.
Three months were left before referring of the legislative proposal to the Parliament of Kazakhstan. It must be noted that the project made the Public Television independent from the executive power and financially independent too. It was supposed to be maintained by the citizens from tax deductions, like in all western countries having television like that. The public television obligations were covered by the law on social contract.
But our initiative did not reach the Parliament. Dariga Nazarbaeva, President’s elder daughter, was in our path. The main passion of Dariga Nursultanovna was money. Later she entered into the taste and realized that TV could serve as a means of manipulating public opinion. But then, in personal conversations she loved to repeat: “Dad doesn’t understand. He helps everyone, and only we, children, have nothing. We are the only ones who don’t get money”.
So, in 95 the project for establishment of public television was suspended, the Republican Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation of Kazakhstan was long kept waiting and was repeatedly reorganized. As a result in 98 Republican State Enterprise Khabar was reorganized into Khabar CJSC. Dariga Nazarbaeva at last became “director of television”. But the corporate form of management we had developed remained the same. Budgetary and non-budgetary financing of Khabar teleradio complex remained as well. So, being a private TV broadcaster, Khabar CJSC had the technical basis of Kazgosteleradio and, in addition to the income from advertizing, got money from the state budget. Feel the scale of corruption!
The further history is more or less known to everyone. Journalists aptly defined everything broadcasted by Khabar channel as “khabarization of the entire country”. There was a period when the TV channel reflected political and financial ambitions of Dariga Nazarbaeva, then the interest of the elder daughter’s party – “Asar” and her opera signing. Alongside with that the media holding acquired more and more new resources.
After publication of privatization and funding models of Khabar CJSC by ex-Minister of information Altynbek Sarsenbaev, Nazarbaev decided to take the media resource away from his elder daughter. There was a scandal, which resulted in the breach of relations with the elder son-in-law Rakhat Aliev. Nazarbaev forced his elder daughter to sell the media holding for 100 million dollars of budgetary money, and signed the documents confirming the transaction. In February of 2006 Altynbek Sarsenbaev was был demonstratively killed. The rest of this story remains unclear. Who killed Altynbek Sarsenbaev? Who at last became the owner of the republican TV and radio broadcasting? Was material and technical basis of the channel together with costly buildings in the center of Almaty and in the regions repurchased from Dariga Nazarbaeva, or were the millions paid for Khabar brand only?
Today the content of Khabar channel and other mass media included in the holding abides to the general line – primarily protection of financial and political interests of the Nazarbaevs. The interests of the viewers and citizens of Kazakhstan were not accounted for. They were completely forgotten in the thick of censoring and desire to present imaginary achievements as actual, and illusion as reality. Many bright journalists and talented stage directors were forced out.
The moment of truth has come today, when the Kremlin is engaged in a consistent, particularly, information war against the Ukraine. When Zhirinovsky speaks openly about “Central Asian Federal District”, it becomes more and more clear that in this new geopolitical situation the Kazakhstanis in general and the Kazakhs in particular are assigned to the role of an ethnos living in the European Union. And here it would be useful to have information space providing for national, and in the case with Kazakhstan, multinational dialogue. Such platform is necessary for harmonious life of any state. It also creates relations between society and power through free press. If the Nazarbaevs were not that greedy, the Public Television established on the basis of Kazgosteleradio as a union of regional TV and radio broadcasters, would be able to accomplish the task. Thus, Swiss public television shows the life of its 26 cantons speaking five languages.
But today Pandora’s box has been opened, and the TV box of the Nazarbaevs has shown its complete failure. For too long it was used to lie and to chase personas non grata to the benefit of one family, which substituted the state with itself. Due to their efforts the nation is coming closer and closer to the point where independence is replaced with an ethnos being a part of “Central Asian Federal District”.
МАКЕЕВА. Украина. Следующая остановка – Среднеазиатский федеральный округ (PDF)
«Хабаризация» всей страны (PDF)
Электронный бюллетень Internews Network¬-Казахстан (PDF)
Акции «Казахстан¬1» переданы в доверительное управление «Хабару» (PDF)
Жириновский оскорбил страны Центральной Азии, предложив объединить их в федеральный округ (PDF)
Александр Дугин: Евразийский союз — это самое серьезное, что наметил Путин за все свои президентские сроки (PDF)
Our strength is in the power of thought, the power of truth, and the power of word.
