Radio Free Bishkek

Thus far, when asked what I would be doing this summer, I generally responded that I would be "working for Radio Free Europe." I said that because I had basically no further idea what I was walking into, or even what exactly Radio Azattyk (the local name for RFE/RL) was, did or anything.

Here are the confusing facts:
Radio Azattyk is part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
From 2005-2008, Radio Azattyk broadcast RFE/RL Programming in Bishkek on both radio & Television. This was terminated by Government maneuvering in January 2009 as part of a renewed, but still not overwhelming, government crackdown on media freedom. Radio Azattyk employs several dozen reporters, including an "International" office that covers Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan, and a "Youth Radio" program of about a dozen 20-somethings.

Here are the relevant details that make the above less enigmatic:
Radio Azattyk is essentially a field-office or Correspondent's desk for RFE/RL. While they previous also had a broadcast station in Bishkek that station is now closed. The majority of their work is not in broadcasting, but in content creation (journalism). They generate stories on Krygyzstan and the other Central Asian republics and wire (ok, e-mail) them back to the RFE HQ in Prague. From there, Kyrgyz-language reports are made available in Kyrgyzstan via internet, satellite, and the ubiquitous short-wave radio. English-language versions are posted on the website.

It's the history of RFE that makes this all sensible. The organization was founded in 1949 by the US Government as a means to undercut Soviet authority. Rather than having Americans try to convince the local Soviet citizens that Communism was bad, the station (and Radio Liberty, which was originally founded independently in 1953 in Europe with essentially the same mission) found refugee intellectuals who had fled a Soviet country and essentially gave them the means to transmit their greivances, in their own language, back to the country they left behind. These services operated exclusively outside the Iron Curtain, but broadcast into the USSR via shortwave radio and later targeted AM and FM radio. The exact methods - fascinating as they are - require a good bit more technical understanding of the physics and history of Radio, with which I will not presently bore you.

The operating premise of RFE & RL were that, 1) Freedom of information was inherently anti-oppression (and thus, presumably, anti-Communist), and 2) People from the region should be responsible for all news gathering and program creation as they best understood the inequities and were most-able to communicate, linguistically and culturally, with the local residents.

Compare that to Voice of America, which was founded at the beginnign of WWII and who's continuing mission is to promote a positive image of the United States abroad, usually relying on US-generated propaganda material translated into local languages by interpreters.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the now-united RFE/RL essentially moved in-country. Instead of relying on refugees, they setup offices staffed locally (without any local US "oversight" mind you). When possible, as in Kyrgyzstan from 2005-2008, local FM broadcast was established, rather than the "broadcast from afar." The prevailing pattern, then, is to have an RFE branch office in-country, generating news reports that are sent back to Prague and from there transmitted back in-country via shortwave, internet, and also satellite transmissions. In this way local news from one RFE/RL country can also be disseminated to others RFE/RL stations around the globe.

You can find quite a bit more about REF/ Radio Azattyk here.

As for my actual duty assignments, it's still rather early to tell, and it seems they're brainstorming more ways to use me. I am a complete oddity as an intern - their first ever from the United States. Since the entire purpose of the organization is the broadcast Kyrgyz news to Krygyz citizens, with a secondary mission of generating international news about Kyrgyzstan (mostly in English), I am potentially very helpful, but only in creative ways.

Some of my planned duties include English language training (as anticipated), but everyone on staff has already had at least some formal training. Everyone speaks Kyrgyz as a native tongue, though they all also know Russian and at least one other language (usually French or German). I am therefore not here to teach basic grammar (thank goodness), but mostly to help improve fluency through discussion sessions - or what in the 'biz is called "style editing."

I will also be involved with some journalism efforts, especially when interviewing foreigners about local or international issues. I have been promised a good share of work with the Youth Radio progam (basically every young person I've met in Kyrgyzstan speaks English), though I still don't know what exactly I would do.

In reality, I think they look on me as only 1/2 as an intern and 1/2 a resource. Whenever there is a language question, I am consultated. Additionally, when an opportunity comes up for me to observe an interesting, or suspicious, aspect of Kyrgyz politics, I get to tag along. This provides me plenty to write about, which is good. Because I am very long-winded.