The EU’s Approach to the Development of Mass Media in Central Asia
The EU’s Approach to the Development of Mass Media in Central Asia

Author(s): Gulnura Toralieva
Subject(s): Media studies, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Government/Political systems, Politics and communication, Social development, Sociology of Politics
Published by: CEPS Centre for European Policy Studies
Keywords: European Union; Central Asia; mass media; human rights; rule of law; democracy; freedom of speech; independent media; journalism;
Summary/Abstract: In spite of positive developments in terms of human rights, the rule of law and democratisation in Central Asia following the adoption of the European Union (EU) Strategy in June 2007, the state of the mass media continues to deteriorate in all five countries in the region. The dialogue on human rights initiated by the EU mostly focuses on the reform of the judicial and correctional systems, as well as on the rights of disenfranchised segments of the population, all of which is unarguably crucial for further democratisation in Central Asian states. However, restrictions on freedom of speech through the moral, physical and economic coercion of journalists, and the inexorably shrinking circle of independent media, have so far failed to attract the attention of the EU.

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