RFE/RL confirm new broadcast to South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has confirmed plans to launch daily broadcasts to the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia beginning in November. The 60-minute daily programme will be produced by journalists in RFE/RL’s Prague headquarters and correspondents in Georgia (including South Ossetia and Abkhazia) and Russia.

The new broadcasts will be in Russian and will be available on shortwave radio frequencies every day in the evening. Broadcasts may also be available on FM frequencies.

The broadcasts will include news and features and will be interactive with listeners. A website known as “Caucasus Echo” will debut simultaneously with the first broadcasts in November. The web presence will be optimized for dial-up connections, which predominate in the region.

The new program’s major objective is reconciliation among people in the regions and the bridging of different viewpoints expressed by the parties to the processes in the region.
(RFE/RL/R Netherlands)

Radio Liberty to begin broadcast for Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Text of report by the Prague-based Caucasus Times website, specializing in news from the Caucasus

Prague, 2 October: Caucasus Times has learnt from competent sources that the well-known US Radio Liberty funded by the US Department of State will start broadcasting for [Georgia's breakaway regions of] Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The source of Caucasus Times said that the new service is being created within the framework of the Georgian service of the radio station. The new service will go on the air under the name of Liberty Time or Free Times. Residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be able to listen to Radio Liberty on short waves for about an hour every day. Journalist Andrey Babitskiy, who is well-known for his critical materials on Chechnya, is the head of the service.

For the time being, the leadership of Radio Liberty is looking for journalists from Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Georgia. One of the radio station’s personnel said that the time on the air will be divided into Georgian, Ossetian, and Abkhaz segments. In this manner, Liberty will try to unite parties to the conflict on the air.

The aims of the new service are as follows:

* To decrease anti-Georgian sentiments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia;
* To monitor events linked to the Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts;
* To create an information space capable of diminishing the influence of Russian propaganda in the conflict zones.
The objective of the project is to submit objective and weighed information on events and processes linked to the Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts to residents of Georgia’s separatist republics (South Ossetia and Abkhazia); to objectively inform the Ossetians and Abkhaz on the Georgian side’s peace initiatives; and to democratize Ossetian and Abkhaz societies by way of advocating democratic values.

The project has received support for 12 months. If successfully implemented, it will be prolonged for one more year.
(Source: Caucasus Times website, Prague, in Russian 02 Oct 09 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands)