Press Releases

Groundbreaking Tajik Radio Talk Show Tackles Pressing Social Issues

Photo: Charles Rice/Internews Rustam Joniyev, in white shirt, hosts a panel discussion on domestic violence on Radio Orieno.

(January 25, 2007) When Tajikistan’s new live radio talk show featured the issue of domestic violence, Dushanbe-based Radio Orieno received more than forty calls from listeners.

One woman stopped by the radio station and asked how she might get in touch with a women’s shelter in Dushanbe so that she could help one of her relatives who was being abused. The radio station provided phone numbers and even called the shelter to let the staff know the woman would be coming to their office. Five more women stopped by the station throughout the following week, seeking similar assistance.

With the support of Internews Network, 103 FM Radio Orieno produces the “Kharfi Khodisa” (“Another Word”) talk show, which debuted on January 12 with a potential audience of two million. Every Friday at 3:00 p.m., the one-hour program will explore important different social issues such issues as drug abuse, nuclear waste disposal, polygamy, HIV/AIDS, international labor migration and human trafficking.

The first program focused on heroin use and drug addiction. Radio Orieno received nearly two dozen phone calls after the broadcast, including one caller who identified himself as a drug user. The caller asked to speak with the former drug user who had been featured on the program so that he, too, might seek treatment.

The program includes guests who are chosen for their expertise on a particular theme and their willingness to speak out publicly on certain issue, with stories produced by Internews-trained journalists interspersed throughout the broadcast.

The same journalists now serving as correspondents for Radio Orieno will eventually work at six radio stations Internews is establishing around the regions of Tajikistan with the support of the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). The six towns and villages include Khorog, Tajikabad, Shaartuz, Kulyab, Kurgonteppa and Tavildara.

The Radio Orieno partnership is one of three between Internews and Dushanbe-based radio stations that allow community radio journalists to hone their skills while their own stations are in the process of being opened.

Internews Network has worked in Tajikistan since 1995 to support independent media and access to information.