The Last Time VOA’s Uzbek Service Closed

With the recent discussion of proposed cuts in the amount and type of US radio broadcasts to Central Asia, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at a post discussing the 2004 closure of Voice of America’s Uzbek Service.

The post referred to a report from IWPR on the decision to close VOA’s Uzbek Service. Then, the folks who made the decision cited low listenership and the continuation of RFE/RL broadcasts and VOA television programming. IWPR reported then that in 2001, VOA broadcasts were doubled, more journalists were hired, and subject matter started to include touchier issues such as high-level corruption and elite politics.

Larry Hart, a Communications Coordinator from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, left a comment in my last post on the proposal to close VOA’s Uzbek Service saying that 80% of those who listen to American radio broadcasts do so on RFE/RL. That is all well and good, but I think that the proposal makes Martha Brill Olcott said about the 2004 closure just as true today.

“It is a demonstration of the confusion that prevails in the Bush administration that the US closes down the VOA Uzbek service at the very time that the US Department of State has cut funding to Uzbekistan because of what it deemed lack of sufficient progress in the area of human rights and in adherence to democratic goals.”
…
“Access to AM or FM airwaves in a competitive commercial market is difficult. But bad reception is better than no reception, which will now be the case in Uzbekistan,” she said. “Once again, the problems of the Central Asian regime have been assigned to the back burner by the U.S. administration – but that does not mean they will go away.”

To tweak that a bit, I would add that a small audience is better than no audience. This stuff is the small change that gets stuck between the cushions of the couch compared to the rest of the budget.

This post was written by...

Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.