Where hostile governments meet public media

Micael Bogar

How can public media develop in regions where governments are hostile to press freedoms? A look at emerging projects in the South Caucasus—a region of independent former Soviet countries linked both geographically and historically—offers some clues.

We have created a list of five notable public media projects: Institute for Reporter’s Freedom and Safety, Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives, Internews, the South Caucasus blogosphere and lastly everyone’s favorite Facebook.

Not quite initiated into the EU like the Baltic states, but not as far east as Borat’s Kazakhstan, the South Caucasus countries stand at the crossroads of capitalist western ideals and the good old Soviet days. Couched in between Russia, Turkey, Iran and two seas, this region has a long history of being the underdog. It is quite a feat that the three countries—Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia—have survived this long at all. It says much about the strength of keeping culture alive. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, three violent conflicts have emerged over the regions of Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In a region where authoritarian governments run commercial media, the presence of public media looks at first glance simply nonexistent. But it’s in circumstances like these that independent and citizen-driven media for public knowledge and action are the most important. Here, the stakes are life and death and the need for public action to counter government or private interests is more urgent than ever.

It is important to make a distinction between projects that are motivated both economically and structurally from outside and more local work that begins within the Caucasus. This is not to say that media projects that are funded and created outside of the region are not worthwhile, but that much of the time, as top-down projects, they do not meet our idea of public media.

Who then, are the public media makers in the South Caucasus? Here are a few game changers:

1. Institute for Reporter’s Freedom and Safety based in Azerbaijan

Established just a few years ago, IRFS is a case where citizen journalists were moved to form a public around the issues they were jointly facing, and the money followed. Their work makes other public media projects possible.

IRFS reports on the corrupt Azerbaijani government’s actions against citizen journalists. This allows journalists to continue to work and persevere under nearly impossible circumstances. While citizen journalists cannot be certain of their safety in Azerbaijan, they can be sure that if they are arrested, beaten or threatened, IRFS will spread the word far and wide. IRFS’s daily email blasts are always on time and chock full of poignant evidence of the Azerbaijani government’s attempt to silence the public.

2. Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives based in Armenia

Giorgi Vanyan and Luiza Poghosyan also share a similar story with IRFS in that they began their work because they noticed that with a rise in nationalist pride has come a similar rise in intolerance for other cultures and groups of people. The trend they noticed in all three countries was a similar misunderstanding of people living in the other two nations. With the current image of the "other" as the "enemy" the only reasonable outcome would be war. They wanted to do something about this.

Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives unites like minded individuals from all the regions: within Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and the disputed territories of Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They attract a public of readers who are interested in reassessing commonly held images and definitions of other cultures within the South Caucasus with their fascinating articles challenging cultural norms held for generations in the region. Their most noteworthy projects include: Days of Azerbaijan in Armenia and facilitation of the Ya Chelovek Traveling Film Festival.

3. Internews

Internews has been around the "bloc" ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. What distinguishes Internews from other nonprofit media makers in the South Caucasus is its ability to work so well across state lines. In a region where competition between cultures and debates about unsettled borders are common everyday conversation, Internews’ offices in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia have managed to rise above the fray. They continue to maintain strong long-lasting friendships and work to create poignant yet realistic public media projects that governments will not shut down but that will still be worthwhile. Their Kid’s Crossroads program airs on local television stations around the Caucasus and not only teaches students important broadcasting skills but works to provide children with real-life stories about people with a neighboring nationality. While Internews offices in the South Caucasus are local, they are largely funded by the Internews agency in Washington DC. Like many public media makers, they face challenges in constantly walking a thin line between local government, donor agencies, and, most importantly, the community.

4. Blogs

Bloggers in the South Caucasus are multiplying overnight. As Internet access becomes more common and the first post-Soviet generation grow older, blogs in this region flourish. Bloggers such as Onnik Krikorian from Armenia, Anna Dolidze from Georgia and Emin Huseynzade from Azerbaijan all blog in English, and provide inspiration to many South Caucasian citizens searching for alternative sources of media.

Evgeny Morozov, a journalist from the former Soviet Union, wrote an article titled Citizen War Reporter: The Caucasus Test back in August that addressed issues citizen journalists within this region face.

"It would be sublimely naive—and condescending —to expect South Ossetians or Georgians to respond to intense shellfire by taking a crash-course in podcasting, even if they did have electricity and an internet connection. Tskhinvali and Gori were never going to be hubs of user-generated content from a war-zone."

However, once again, the question must be asked: How is blogging public media? Yes, citizens can log on and blog on to their hearts content, but what will that matter if nothing comes of it? With blogging becoming such a popular tool for self-expression, it will be interesting to see if the ripe moment emerges when Georgians, Azerbaijanis and Armenians really do have a reason to unite together. It is my guess the blogosphere will be the place in which it happens.

Until then, with so much dissent within the region, the blogosphere seems to reaffirm and entrench the warlike images that other public media campaigns work so hard to challenge.

5. Facebook Activist Groups

In October Facebook has had its busiest month yet. It’s growing by leaps and bounds on an international level. One of its most popular features is the Cause groups which allow Facebook members to create a page on the site centered around a specific cause or issue. Since the invasion of Russia into Georgia, Georgian Facebook Cause groups have exploded on to the scene. Facebook pages such as "Stop Fighting in Georgia" with 9,000 members and "STOP the Russian Aggression against Georgia" with over 23,000 members, offer tools for connection and action. Someone even posted a link where can write letters to Putin and Medvedev in English.

A quick search for Nagorno Karabakh Cause groups uncovers a South Caucasian mini- information war right on Facebook with hundreds of members taking sides. The Azerbaijanis and Armenians are at war over a territory called Nagorno Karabakh which both claim to have historical and legal claim to.

One of the cause groups titled Peaceful Solution in Nagorno Karabakh seemed to be a place where some true discussion and communication across thick state borders could take place, but I found very little participation from Azerbaijan’s side at all. The few Azerbaijani’s that are members of this cause group are living outside Azerbaijan. No wonder: For an Azerbaijani to claim allegiance with an Armenian, even on Facebook, could have serious implications if the government- controlled press decided it was news worthy.

Facebook does serve as a forum for conversations to take place in public among people who would not typically interact due to the wars, but due to social rules set in place by the strict regimes and militaristic communities, it hasn’t really in the end served much of a public media purpose.

Now more than ever, opportunities for dialogue and public participation are springing up through media outlets. With more powerful technologies come stronger connections. As Internet becomes more affordable and available, will digital media play a peacemaking or inflammatory role across lines that are seldom crossed? What will be the turning point? And most importantly, what are the areas of interest that will bring Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Abkhaz, South Ossetians and all the other ethnicities within this geographic region together to take advantage of this growing phenomena? The answers remain to be seen.