Media of Turkmenistan

The Media of Turkmenistan is under heavy control of the state. The government funds nearly all newspapers, and criticism of the president is absolutely forbidden. State licensing policy effectively eliminates all outlets not reflecting official views. To avoid reprisal, domestic and foreign journalists engage in self-censorship.

In 2003 the newspapers with the largest circulation were Adalat (Justice), Mugallymlar gazeti (Teacher’s Newspaper), Neytralny Turkmenistan (Neutral Turkmenistan), Turkmenistan, and Vatan (Fatherland). Most newspapers appear weekly or three times weekly. The only domestic news agency is the Turkmen State News Service; the Anadolu Agency of Turkey maintains an office in Ashgabat. Broadcasting is under the full control of the National Television and Radio Company of Turkmenistan, which operates four national television channels. Little recent information on radio stations is available.^[1]

Television

In Turkmenistan, satellite TV from Russia and Turkey was popular until the owning of private satellite dishes was forbidden in 2015. ^[2]

Turkmenistan broadcasts 7 public television channels (6 of them on the territory of the whole country, and 1 only in Ashgabat). All of them are broadcast in the Turkmen language (with the exception of Turkmenistan news channel, which broadcasts in 7 languages). By the content and quality of programs, they do not differ from each other. These sources of information are an ideological mouthpiece of the ruling regime in the country. Any opinion or idea that differs from the President of Turkmenistan cannot be broadcast (except if the criticism is made by the president himself). They also present informative and entertaining programs and movies produced nationally, sports events with the participation of Turkmen sportsmen. Advertising on Turkmen television is forbidden. Cable television is banned in the country.

• Altyn Asyr (formerly TMT-1; English: Golden Age) - The main channel of the country. ^[3]
• Yashlyk (formerly TMT-2; English: Youth) - Channel destined to the youth. ^[4]
• Miras (formerly TMT-3; English: Heritage) - TV channel about the culture and heritage of the Turkmen people ^[5]
• Türkmenistan (formerly TMT-4) - international channel broadcast in seven different languages. ^[6]
• Türkmen Owazy (English: Turkmen Melody.) - Music channel. ^[7]
• Ashgabat - TV channel broadcast in Ashgabat. ^[8]
• Turkmenistan Sport - sports channel. ^[9]

Radio

There are at least four radio stations in Turkmenistan:

• TR1 Radio Watan (279 kHz & 67.04 MHz)
• TR2 Radio Char-Tarapdan (69.68 MHz)
• TR3 Radio Miras (103.9 MHz)
• TR4 Radio Ovaz (101.3 & 104.4 MHz)

TR1 broadcasts on Longwave, Mediumwave OIRT FM and CCIR FM, TR2 & TR3 broadcast on MW and OIRT & CCIR FM, and TR4 broadcasts on CCIR FM. All four stations also broadcast on DAB+ in Ashgabat.^[10][11] There is no local or regional radio stations in the country.

See also

• Communications in Turkmenistan

References