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)

Voice of Russia expands broadcast to Georgia

Excerpt from report by Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS
Moscow, 15 August: The Voice of Russia radio station is stepping up its presence in Georgia’s information space. “That has become possible thanks to increasing the number of short- and medium-wave transmitters,” the company has told ITAR-TASS.
Transmission capacity of seven transmitters located in Moscow, St Petersburg, Krasnodar and Samara is now involved in the task. In addition, Voice of Russia programmes in Russian are being relayed in Abkhazia on the 107.9 MHz FM frequency; now their amount has been increased from six to 10 hours a day.
The agency’s source said that on 9 August the Georgian National Security Council passed a resolution and the Georgian president passed a decree banning the broadcasts of all Russian TV and radio channels and blocking access to all ru-domain websites. “Voice of Russia broadcasts in Tbilisi on the FM-frequency were stopped from late on 8 August,” the radio station said. Previously Voice of Russia programmes were on air in the Georgian capital for six hours a day.
“However Voice of Russia has retained its presence in Georgia’s information space. At the moment Moscow broadcasts its programmes to the Georgian territory and nearby areas for 14 hours a day,” the company said. [Passage omitted]
The source added that “throughout the military conflict in South Ossetia, Voice of Russia was the only Russian media outlet to inform Georgian citizens of Russia’s position on all the issues in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict in a timely fashion”.
(Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0911 gmt 15 Aug 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Voice of Russia opens South Ossetia mobile SMS channel
The Voice of Russia website carries the following announcement: “The Voice of Russia has opened a South Ossetia mobile SMS channel. If you track down the events now underway in this Caucasian flarepoint or you witnessed something yourself, please send us an SMS to +7(917)7677845. Your information will be published on our website and broadcast by our radio station. Also, you can subscribe to our brief SMS news on the latest developments in South Ossetia. For details please visit our web site at www.ruvr.ru .”(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Russian state radio stations, newspaper become available in South Ossetia

Text of report by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti
Moscow, 13 August: From Wednesday [13 August] another Russian FM radio station and the [government-owned] Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper will become available in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia that has suffered from Georgia’s aggression.
“[State-owned] Vesti FM radio station began broadcasting on VHF and medium wave frequencies in Tskhinvali today [12 August]. Tomorrow we hope to open the [state-owned] Mayak radio station on 106.3 FM,” Russian Telecommunications and Mass Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev said. He was speaking in Moscow on 12 August at a telephone conference of the federal operational headquarters for eliminating the consequences of the armed conflict in South Ossetia.
He said that the first special issue of Rossiyskaya Gazeta would be published on Wednesday. “We intend to send the main print run to South Ossetia via the Defence Ministry, so that people there are not cut off from information,” he said.
Base stations are being restored in Tskhinvali, Shchegolev said. The ministry is sending two mobile stations and a satellite station for that purpose, he said.
“We are installing free telephones in refugee centres. Mobile telephones are being sent to hospitals, so that seriously wounded people can also communicate with their families,” Shchegolev said.
(Source: RIA Novosti news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0216 gmt 13 Aug 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)