The News and Media Collective of Thuzbekistan (Thuzbek State News)

Thuzbek State News is the unofficial name for the News and Media Collective of Thuzbekistan. It is headquartered in Ashluv, Thuzbekistan and is the only official broadcaster in Thuzbekistan. Created in 1955, it merged the major media outlets and papers into one large collective during the reorganization of the economy under Emirhan during the Revolutionary Decade. In 1961, Thuzbek State News (TSN) officially established five "affiliate stations" which it called publishing houses in Baslov, Bashlon, Turvin Ghada, Carzil, and Nassar. These affiliate stations officially belong to the News and Media Collective, but saw increasing independence from 1961 to 1973, then even further independence after 1994. Today, these affiliates and the TSN represent all of Thuzbekistan's broadcasting and news industry.

The News and Media Collective of Thuzbekistan is organized similarly to the Federal Workers Council. It is headed by a Chairman with a "Workers Advisers Council" electing the Chairman. The Chairman then controls most aspects of the Collective. The Workers Advisers Council consists of members appointed to it by the FWC, similar to most other major collectives in Thuzbekistan. It then breaks down to its various branches and offices. Before 1994, Thuzbek State News directly owned or managed most news offices and broadcasting stations in Thuzbekistan. However, in 1994, the Islamic Socialist Party and some Opposition parties passed the "Independent Media Act of 1994", which forced the TSN to grant its affiliates more freedom and control over most assets in the affiliates' zones. Since then, Publishing Houses have made up most of the News and Media Collective's staff and assets, essentially turning the TSN into a large management firm.

The National Media: Thuzbek State News

The only national media in Thuzbekistan is the parent Collective Thuzbek State News. It is the only station allowed at press conferences and the only one official government statements are made to. Thus, it has come to be seen by many as the mouthpiece of the government, particularly the Prime Minister. When it reports a government statement, copies of that statement are distributed to the publishing houses, but only after TSN has prepared or reported on the statement. This is meant to try and get ahead of the news before the publishing houses can put out an article. If a publishing house does leak official statements or reports before TSN does, they are generally heavily reprimanded by TSN. In some cases, the journalist or editor can be dismissed. The legality of this status quo state media and the authority TSN operates on in these dismissals is dubious at best, but yet unchallenged.

The Affiliates

The Affiliate stations are known as Publishing Houses and were established in 1961 as an attempt by TSN founder Misho Mikheil to branch out its operations and absorb the local news stations that were still running at the time. The goal was to control the information that made it to the public in the Famine of 1961-3. However, they quickly became small clones of the TSN which themselves began to branch out, extending the TSN's reach over Thuzbekistan and modifying public opinion by giving them an increasing independence in some parts of their operation. By 1970, the publishing houses featured opinion articles and debates on television and radio that featured minority politicians and beliefs that wildly differed from the administration's stances on issues such as Lotus Revolution in Samudera and the building tensions in Orsandia before Civil War broke out in 1972. However, that approach was halted suddenly in 1973 when Misho Mikheil died of a heart attack in his home. The new Chairman of the Collective, Tedore Temo, put a freeze on all independent material in a secret memo as soon as he started in order to try and hide the defeats in Orsandia. The freeze remained in effect under Temo until 1994 when the Islamic Socialists took power.

Emin Vedat had been a strong anti-war advocate throughout the early 90s and late 80s and, when that anti-war feeling tore through the populace in 1992 as fighting in Athara Magarat and the People's Republic of Chatha intensified, the Internationalist Socialist Party lost power in favor of the Islamic Socialists. Once in power, Emin Vedat and the Islamic Socialists set about reforming most aspects of Thuzbek government. One of the most celebrated by civil rights think tanks in the University of Ashluv was the forced separation of the publishing houses into small collectives, similar in structure to the Federal Workers Council System. Each were designated as a small subsection of the News and Media Collective with their own chairmen. As a result, the rules of local collectives applied to the publishing houses, including the requirement that the new collectives hire only from their local area. On top of this, the assets formerly owned directly by the TSN in these areas were given to the new councils, including staff, equipment, and broadcasting facilities. However, the most important part of this tied into the overall reform of the FWC in this time, which deregulated the local councils, allowing them to operate with less supervision.

These reforms resulted in five semi-independent publishing houses which, as time went on, became unafraid of criticizing the government. By 2018, these independent stations had formed a culture among the populace and the media that expected at least some sense of unbiased opinion. This was seen clearly as even the national TSN featured articles discussing Project XJ-1 and the Second Orsandian Civil War. This new found independence also allowed the publishing houses to begin developing their own slants, which gave each new reputations than they had under direct management of the TSN. Baslovian Publishing House, for instance, played to mostly Islamic Conservatives while Carzil and Turvin Ghada Publishing Houses both slanted towards traditionalism and tolerant views. Bashlon generally remained on the far left, but was less supportive of the authoritarian measures taken by the government and the TSN.

Turvin Ghada Publishing House

Rep: Tolerant, Moderate Left, pro-traditionalism.

1. Report on Svalbardian First Wave Documentary

Baslov Publishing House

Rep: Anti-government, Islamic right winged.
1. Leaked FWC System Failures Report
2. FWC System Failures Report Confirmed/Calling Out TSN
3. Journalist Fired, Summoned to Parliament
4. Journalist, MPs exonerated, Calls for Elections

Bashlon Publishing House

Rep: Pro-reform and decentralization, mostly unbiased in state of economy.
1. Government Bonds in Turmoil as Political Showdown Begins
2. Hundreds of Protesters Rounded Up in Ashluv as Sit-ins Shut Down Factories and Workplaces Across the Nation