TURKMENISTAN: RFE/RL NEWS COLLECTION PRACTICES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000808

SIPDIS

STATE FOR R, SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: RFE/RL NEWS COLLECTION PRACTICES
LEADS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCURACY OF REPORTING

REF: A. ASHGABAT 0807

B. 07 ASHGABAT 1117

Classified By: CDA Richard E. Hoagland: 1.4(B),(D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: A Turkmenistan-based RFE/RL reporter told
Poloff on June 26 that a June 23 RFE/RL story that he was
uncertain where the report that hundreds of families were
being forcibly resettled -- possibly due to their ethnicity
-- to frontier outposts in an effort to populate new
territories in northern Turkmenistan came from. According to
the reporter, the story was likely the result of a caller who
text messaged Radio Azatlyk, and was subsequently interviewed
about the relocation story by someone in RFE/RL's Prague
office. While there is a basis in fact -- Turkmenistan's
authorities are enforcing a new law to widen border green
zones -- RFE/RL's practice of broadcasting single-source
reports from Turkmenistan led the news organization to take
that kernel of truth and run with it -- with highly colored
results. Recognizing the difficulties that Turkmenistan's
environment presents to those wanting to employ normal good
journalism practices, the fundamental disconnect between
RFE/RL's news collection procedures and its policy of
presenting those stories as accurate "news," without
caveating the limitations of its sources, is hurting both
RFE/RL's credibility, and post's ability to persuade
Turkmenistan's officials that RFE/RL is a legitimate news
organization whose personnel should be given respect and
accreditation (see reftel A). END SUMMARY.


2. (U) RFE/RL broadcast a report June 23 alleging that
hundreds of families in northern Turkmenistan's Dashoguz
Province have been forced to leave their homes near the
Turkmen-Uzbek border in a government effort to populate new
terroritories in desert regions. According to the story,
none of the families being relocated is receiving
compensation, and only have been told vaguely that the law
requires all territory within 500 meters of the Uzbek border
to be cleared. The RFE/RL story strongly implied that the
government might be targeting families forced to move because
of their ethnicity.

POST SOURCES ONLY AWARE OF VOLUNTARY RESETTLEMENT PRACTICES


3. (C) Post checked with a number of local employees from
Dashoguz and implementing organizations active in Dashoguz
(please protect),all of whom told us they had not heard of
any coordinated campaign of the nature that RFE/RL was
reporting. Though one staff member believed that the story
of relocations from a 500-meter border zone might have some
basis in fact, he suggested that the overall story of mass
relocations was probably exaggerated. Employees did speak of
long-standing practices under which people can apply to the
local government for a job/land. Because of a scarcity of
new land in many villages, individuals can be (and frequently
are) encouraged to go to new districts, like Ruhubelent, a
district set up two years ago in southeastern Dashoguz. If
they want to accept the offer of land or a job, then they
would have to move to the new areas. This understanding is
consistent with what an embassy officer learned during an
October 2007 visit to Ruhubelent (reftel).

THE PROBLEMS WITH ONE-SOURCE REPORTING


4. (C) In an effort to get to the bottom of the story,
Poloff met on June 26 with RFE/RL reporter Halmyrat
Gylychdurdiyev. Gylychdurdiyev told POLOFF that he had not
posted the story and does not have contacts in Dashoguz.
Gylychdurdiyev suggested that RFE/RL had received the story
from a listener. According to Gylychdurdiyev, RFE/RL
broadcasts as Radio Azatlyk six hours a day in the Turkmen
language. In between segments, it runs an announcement
urging listeners who have a story to report to call a local
number and leave an SMS text message with their phone number.

ASHGABAT 00000808 002 OF 002


Prague-based Radio Azatlyk employees then call those who
respond and ask them about their stories. If Radio Azatlyk
employees decide the story is worthwhile, they write it up
for broadcast without further confirmation. Gylychdurdiyev
acknowledged that this one-source style of reporting limits
the articles' breadth and accuracy, noting that, if people
are upset about something that happens to them, they often
use the Radio Azatlyk route to vent. Likewise, Prague-based
Radio Azatlyk personnel either do not ask the right
questions, fail to ask all the questions that would provide
verifying details, or make assumptions that are not always
accurate, sometimes based on worst-case stereotypes of
Turkmenistan.


5. (C) What Gylychdurdiyev did know about the specifics of
what is happening in Dashoguz is that former President
Niyazov had decreed that the border should have a 300-meter
wide, unpopulated buffer to facilitate security efforts.
Under President Berdimuhamedov, the government issued an
internal decree increasing the width of the border zone to
500 meters. Authorities now must enforce the new law,
meaning that those within the 500-meter limit must move.
Gylychdurdiyev had no information to suggest that the policy
was being implemented in an ethnically discriminatory
fashion, although a large number of ethnic Uzbeks live in and
around Dashoguz, and he believed that, at most, 80-90
families would be affected. Due to his lack of contacts in
the province, Gylychdurdiyev was unable to provide POLOFF
with additional details, including whether those affected
would receive compensation or alternative housing.


6. (C) COMMENT: We will continue to pursue the Dashoguz
story, but it appears at this point as if the story is, at
the least, highly exaggerated. But this case raises larger
questions about the way RFE/RL and other sources of "news" on
Turkmenistan -- including most of the exile opposition
websites -- operate. While recognizing the difficulties that
Turkmenistan's environment presents to those wanting to use
normal good journalism practices, we believe that there is a
fundamental disconnect between RFE/RL's news collection
methodology and its policy of presenting those stories as
accurate "news" without caveating the limitations of its
sources. The result is that, although many of RFE/RL's
stories have an element of truth, the overall presentation
can be biased and off-base. If someone has an ax to grind,
it is the perfect vehicle for launching an anonymous attack.
It is precisely these problems that over time impacts both
RFE/RL's credibility and post's ability to persuade
Turkmenistan's officials that RFE/RL is a legitimate news
organization whose personnel should be given accreditation.
END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND