On the Information and Press Day, a media expert Igor Shestakov shared with 24.kg news agency his opinion on the state of modern mass media in Kyrgyzstan.
He believes that Kyrgyz media have ceased to be professional and have become a way of earning money (and not always honest) for their owners.
According to him, such a concept as professionalism remained in the early 2000s, and nowadays, there is a handful of the media in Kyrgyzstan that stay true to generally accepted standards.
«Unfortunately, editorial requirements are minimized, and sometimes it seems that a material was published without any corrections, in the form it was written by a journalist. This has become a trend. Our mass media resemble vessels without oars: they rush where the wind blows,» Igor Shestakov stressed.
If we want the media in our country to become professional, we need to revive the school of editors. An editor is like a captain for a ship, a boat follows the heading he set.
Media expert Igor Shestakov
He added that, in general, the loss of professionalism has given rise to another phenomenon — social media have replaced information resources. «There is a real competition nowadays. Modernization of our domestic sphere and emergence of mobile devices have enabled everyone to be a journalist. The main thing is to pay for the Internet on time and have a good camera on a phone,» the expert said.
Igor Shestakov believes that another trap for the media is political parties, or rather, their leaders. They turned the mass media into an instrument of struggle for power.
«Objectivity is inherent in a very small number of media resources. I would name 24.kg news agency among them. This news agency works according to the standards of journalism when independent reporting is important,» said Igor Shestakov.
Mass media is a business nowadays. Media outlets need to survive, earn money. Therefore, in pursuit of money, our journalists do not disdain black PR.
Media expert Igor Shestakov
At the same time, Kyrgyzstan, according to the expert, has been the leader in the number of mass media and in the variety of points of view presented in them.
