RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service: Radio Azatlyk
Azatlyk Radiosy is the only independent Turkmen-language media reporting from inside one of the world's most closed authoritarian regimes.
About
- From Prague, RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service relies on in- country networks to report news the government suppresses.
- Despite censorship, reaches tens of thousands of subscribers in Turkmen and Russian-languages online; and via social networks, satellite, and shortwave radio.
- Azatlyk’s reports about agriculture resource shortages prompted a national corruption investigation acknowledged by the President.
- After hard-hitting reporting by Azatlyk, schools stopped an extortion scheme.
- Medical workers’ salaries were reinstated after Azatlyk’s report on their wages being cut by as much as 20 percent amid economic hardships.
- A report on corruption in a new hospital prompted local authorities to investigate.
- Following Azatlyk’s report on dire conditions in the Turkmen army, including malnutrition of soldiers, former President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visited a military unit for an inspection.
Impact
January – December 2022
- Website: 15.7 million visits; 21.3 million video views
- Facebook: 1.6 million video views; 184,000 engaged users
- YouTube: 6.35 million views; 86,200 subscribers
- Instagram: 47,000 video views; 9,300 followers
Updated: April 2023
Media Climate
- Turkmen security services routinely track down Azatlyk’s social followers and call the Service “the West’s weapon against Turkmenistan.”
- Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkmenistan 177th out of 180 countries.
- Turkmenistan is second on Freedom House’s Worst of the Worst list.