Kyrgyz TV journalists defy the new management

The leading journalists of the Kyrgyz State TV & Radio Corporation NTRK have expressed their distrust in the new management, appointed by the new Kyrgyzstan's Secretary of State Dastan Sarygulov. They think that the islamist views of the newly appointed officials are inconsistent with the secular character of the Kyrgyz state.

According to the journalists, two members of the new management adhere to the radical islamist and nationalist views. "Kyrgyzstan is constitutionally a secular state. NTRK shouldn't thus become a mouthpiece for only one confession. And the personnel's opinion was ignored at that. Today a new staff policy should be put center stage", opined one of the protesters, Zhaynagul Maksimova. The protesting journalists are sure that the new appointments can be explained only by the old friendship between the appointees and the Secretary of State, since they have been working together for a long time at the "Tenerchilik" Foundation.

Addressing the media, the acting prime-minister K. Bakiyev, the law-enforcement minister F. Kulov and the Parliament, the NTRK journalists expressed the hope that their opinion would be heard and the practice of distributing spoils, "based on tribalism and personal sympathies", would be tolerated no more. "NTRK should be subordinated to the Parliament, but not to any single representative of the authorities, e.g. to a Secretary of State or the Administration of the President, to avoid the censorship and to make the National TV truly national", asserted the journalists.

Source: Kyrgyz News Agency "KABAR"