The ‘Mass Media Support Centre’ justifies its name

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BISHKEK - In Dec. 2008, the Kyrgyz fund “Mass Media Support Centre” celebrated its 5th anniversary. Today, nobody is astonished that the newspapers of Kyrgyzstan are issued in colour, but five years ago, before the fund opened an independent full-colour printing house, there were no such publications. Since that time the printing house has printed more than 100 million issues of Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Tajik newspapers.

Today, the fund is one of the leaders of Kyrgyzstan’s print market. It collaborates with more than 150 publications from all regions of the country. "Our mission is to strengthen the economic base of editorial staffs,” said the director of the fund Andrey Miyasarov. “The fact is that, after five years, the newspaper business has become profitable in Kyrgyzstan. The printing market is emerging from a slump. Over the last year a larger number of advertising and corporate newspapers have appeared, and the number of information-entertainment publications is growing." According to Miyasarov, the fund is now working on the creation of a single newspaper organisation to be called the Association of Publishers and Distributors.

This year, the fund established the first “National Newspaper Prize,” a special award given for the best projects and innovations in the publishing business. The intention of the organisers is that the award becomes a symbol of acknowledgement and a unique "mark of quality.” Three Kyrgyz publications were awarded the 2008 prize.

“We hope that this is only the beginning of a long life for the fund, whose activity is directed at the improvement of the mass media print market and the development of freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan,” concluded Miyasarov.