Kyrgyzstan cable TV operators will have to suspend foreign content during election campaign
BISHKEK. Sept 12 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan's cable television operators will have to suspend foreign television channels' content during the election campaign, as required by the constitution, Ala-TV Director Vasily Goncharov said at a roundtable conference on Monday.
"The new election law bans election canvassing via foreign mass media and requires that live broadcasts of foreign TV channels be suspended," he said.
"The law does not say clearly which content should be qualified as having to do with election campaigning," he said. "Suppose a foreign TV channel has prepared a report about a presidential candidate. Who is to judge whether this report discredits the politician? It appears the entire report will have to be cut out. What remains for us to do is to stop broadcasting TV channels," he said.
"Kyrgyz cable operators rebroadcast 40 channels in the analogue format and more than a hundred in the digital format," he said. "We will have to control 15 to 20 channels. To buy equipment, rent premises, hire abut 80 personnel and to pay them a salary we will need between $65,000 and $85,000 for the pre-election and election periods. We have neither the money, nor the technical capabilities for that," Goncharov said.
"Cable operators will have to cut broadcasts of all of their foreign television channels from September 25, which will lead to losses and limit TV viewers' access to information. There are more than 200,000 viewers of cable TV channels in Bishkek alone," he said.
There are three cable television operators in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan's presidential elections will be held on October 30.