Checkit Media Editor-in-Chief Assel Sooronbayeva spoke about Kyrgyzstan’s experience of combating disinformation at the 24th OSCE Central Asian Conference on Media (CACM) “At Crossroads: Protecting Media Freedom in the Name of Democracy“.
This conference was held on July 6-7 in Bishkek, where the current discourse on media-related topics in the region was discussed: countering disinformation, freedom of speech in the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence, digital safety of journalists, hate speech, legal aspects of journalists’ safety, media and digital literacy initiatives and media self-regulatory bodies in Central Asian countries.
During the panel discussion “Countering Disinformation while Protecting Media Freedom”, Asel Sooronbaeva detailed the creation of the fact-checking initiative, and told about the experience of four editorial boards, which united under the aegis of “Media-Blockpost” to fight misinformation related to COVID, vaccine, masks, 5 G, etc.
Seven media outlets united in the fight against disinformation
“Initially we thought it was a temporary initiative, but later we had parliamentary, presidential, local elections. Also, border conflicts. All these events were accompanied by fake and manipulative information,” Sooronbayeva said.
Since January this year, three more editorial offices have joined the fact-checker collaboration and the association has registered its own pages on four platforms.
Asel Sooronbaeva noted that Checkit Media focuses on the video format and creates content in the Kyrgyz language, since the research on media consumption proved it to be popular among the local audience.
She also spoke about the latest Checkit Media investigation – journalists revealed that the country’s main TV channel had set up a media department and a factory of fakes and trolls existed under its cover. This department is in the business of glorifying power and vilifying opponents: activists, free media, etc. Media department employees were proven to be linked to fake social media accounts.
Since 2022, the National TV & Radio Company’s Supervisory Board has been abolished and its editorial policy has been fully transferred to the Presidential Administration. In addition, a former employee of the National TV & Radio Company said on anonymous terms that the head of the Presidential Information Policy Service gave the assignments to the media department.
Sooronbayeva noted that the budget spends 2.5 million KGS ($29,000) daily to maintain the state media. 1.3 million KG soms ($15,000) out of these funds were spent on the maintenance of the country’s main TV channel – the National TV & Radio Company.
Checkit Media’s investigation of the fake factory in NTRC can be found here.
In Russian with English subtitles:
