DW Akademie in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

Although Uzbekistan’s press freedom ranking has risen in recent years, it remains low, ranked by Reporters Without Borders’ 2023 World Press Freedom Index at 137 out of 180 countries. Websites and social media platforms continue to be censored, and bloggers and media professionals face arrests if their reports contradict the interests of Uzbek politicians. 

In 2023, Kyrgyzstan's ranking dropped from position 72 (2022) to position 122. Critical journalists have been arrested and independent media are under massive pressure. Kloop, for example, an online news platform that DW Akademie has worked with, has been blocked in the country, which often leads to independent media outlets losing advertising clients and sponsors. Once considered an island of democracy in Central Asia, the country has become a dictatorship. 

Our activities

DW Akademie supports providing current relialbe information services to rural populations in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The goal is for people to become more active in the media and thus participate more effectively in the political and social changes taking place in their countries.

Download our most recent evaluation report for Kyrgyzstan here.

In Uzbekistan's most northern region, Karakalpakstan, and the northwestern region Khwarazm, community media are producing reliable information relevant to local populations.Thirty community media outlets in rural Kyrgyzstan are also being strengthened. 

For this, DW Akademie works with the Kyrgyz Community Media Association (CMA), which then shares insights with its Uzbek partners. 

DW Akademie is also active in the education sector, focusing on two aspects: the ongoing training of media professionals and, over the long term, the introduction of media and information literacy (MIL) to schools. 

In 2019, DW Akademie launched the Media School Uzbekistan which qualifies journalists and media managers and shows them how to work independently of state funding. DW Akademie has also equipped the country’s University of Journalism and Mass Communication, which opened in 2018, with a radio studio.  

To help young people better counter disinformation, DW Akademie, together with the Uzbek Modern Journalism Development Center, will over the longterm be introducing MIL in school curricula, as it already is in Kyrgyzstan. A study has been done of Uzbek students’ and teachers’ MIL skills, and teachers have taken part in initial MIL trainings. School students have also participated in an MIL summer camp.   

Funding: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Locations: Tashkent, Bishkent

Local partners: Modern Journalism Development Center (MJDC, Uzbekistan), Community Media Association (DMA, Kyrgyzstan), Media Sabak Foundation (MSF, Kyrgyzstan), Public Broadcast Company (KTRK), Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation,  Internews

Focus: Qualification, professionalism and financial sustainability of the media sector, social participation, participation of disadvantaged groups, (local) interactive media content and community media, media and information literacy