There aren’t many media outlets that consistently and comprehensively cover Central Asia, let alone in English. Watching well-established English-language outlets struggle with funding cuts and noticing a dearth of in-depth, high-quality content about Central Asia – especially long-form reporting, investigations, and stories focused on culture and history – longtime journalist Agnieszka Pikulicka decided to launch Turan Tales, a podcast and Substack newsletter focused on the region. Turan Tales borrows its name from an ancient Iranian term with historical, geographic, and mythological connotations.
Over the last year, Turan Tales has covered subjects as varied as elite political infighting in Uzbekistan, the prospects of nuclear power in the region, carpets, queer spaces in Kazakhstan, Tengrism, Russia’s wartime exiles and much, much more.
In the following interview with The Diplomat’s Catherine Putz, Pikulicka surveys the English-language Central Asian media landscape, lays out the challenges faced by regional media, and explains why she started up Turan Tales in the first place.
How would you characterize the present media landscape in Central Asia – in Russian, national languages, and English?
The media landscape in Central Asia is becoming increasingly bleak. On the one hand, well-established English-language newsrooms such as Eurasianet and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have faced significant funding cuts, which have severely affected their ability to cover the region. Major global media outlets have never shown much sustained interest in Central Asia and have rarely been willing to maintain dedicated, locally based reporters. Coverage of the region is often produced from Moscow, China, or even further out, which significantly impacts the depth and quality of journalism.
At the same time, the media industry is undergoing a broader transformation marked by layoffs and the growing influence of AI, making on-the-ground reporting from Central Asia an even lower priority for many newsrooms.
Local media, meanwhile, have long depended on funding or the goodwill of local businessmen, often with government ties. This has made it difficult to sustain high-quality reporting in local languages or even in Russian. Kazakhstan’s Vlast is a strong example of a locally based investigative outlet, but it is the exception rather than the rule. Leading investigative platforms from Kyrgyzstan, such as Kloop and Temirov Live, have faced criminal charges and been forced to leave the country. Uzbekistan is still waiting for its own version of Kloop, not to mention Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, which rank among the most restrictive countries in the world and have some of the worst press freedom records.
Central Asia has long been a difficult environment for journalism and human rights, but not bad enough to attract funding or global attention. There is always a greater and more immediate crisis elsewhere, and that’s where the funds go. As a result, the future of journalism in the region, particularly in the English language, may lie in smaller, independent projects that produce high-quality reporting on a smaller scale and operate without reliance on large donors – such as Peter Leonard’s Havli newsletter or Turan Tales.
What challenges do journalists, and media organizations, face in Central Asia? How much do these challenges differ between local-based media and media further abroad?
Underfunding has always been the main challenge. Local media have typically relied either on government-linked funding or support from oligarchs, which may ensure operational stability but rarely guarantee editorial freedom. Otherwise they struggle to survive. Many independent journalists have turned to YouTube and other online platforms, where they can express themselves more freely. However, this path is more hard to sustain, and, as far as I am aware, YouTube monetization in the region is currently available only in Kazakhstan.
Funding constraints are, of course, a global issue in the media industry and not unique to Central Asia. The key difference is that in many other regions, audiences still have relatively easy access to unbiased, fact-based news. In Central Asia, this has long been a challenge. As local services of outlets like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty face financial and legal pressures, the availability of high-quality, independent content continues to shrink.
Some surveys have shown shifting media consumption patterns in the region (as elsewhere), including movement away from TV, traditional papers, and radio-based news toward social media. How has this played out in Central Asia?
This trend has long been visible in the region as well. Uzbekistan is one of the most interesting cases. After Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in late 2016, internet censorship and social media restrictions were significantly eased. This opened online space to hundreds of thousands of new users with little or no prior experience of freedom of the internet, or of speech more broadly.
As a result, large numbers of self-described “bloggers” began expressing their views, often without much reflection or fact-checking. This included radical Muslims without formal religious education producing religious content, as well as human rights activists deeply engaged with local issues. The outcome was a highly fragmented media environment in which rumors, conspiracy theories, and half-truths flourished.
The situation has evolved somewhat since then, with a gradual professionalization of social media content, which is clearly a positive development. Across the region, many people now rely on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and Telegram as primary sources of news. As elsewhere, the influence of local content creators and opinion leaders is growing, as people turn away from traditional media, particularly younger audiences.
Last year, you launched Turan Tales – a podcast and Substack newsletter focused on Central Asia. Tell us about it. What has the reception been like? What do you hope to do with Turan Tales in the future?
I launched Turan Tales because I couldn’t find in-depth, high-quality content about Central Asia. I don’t mean breaking news, but long-form reporting, investigations, and stories about culture and history. I also felt that most English-language podcasts focusing on Central Asia were produced in the West, and produced expert content, rather than local stories. It sometimes felt that journalism focused on Central Asia had abandoned any ambition for depth. That said, I am not referring to The Diplomat, which has long published high-quality reporting on the region.
I also grew increasingly frustrated with foreign editors’ lack of interest in long-form pieces and deep dives from Central Asia. Unless a story was tied to a major headline, Russia or China, there was very little interest.
So I decided to build my own platform, hoping I wasn’t the only one frustrated by how Western media approaches the region. My aim was to produce less content, but of higher quality: well-researched long reads and in-depth conversations about the issues shaping Central Asia. Over time, I secured a grant that allowed me to turn these long reads into full-fledged, high-quality audio reportage, something I had wanted to do for a while. Like many millennials, I eventually found myself drawn to podcasts as a format.
The response has been very encouraging. I didn’t expect so many people to share my need for in-depth content on Central Asia. Turan Tales hasn’t suddenly become a go-to platform for regional analysis, but it is steadily growing, building its audience and its influence step by step.
Looking ahead, I plan to introduce new formats and possibly launch a website beyond Substack, expand options for paid subscribers, and organize more offline events across Central Asia. Much of this, of course, will depend on funding.
Has anything surprised you in the year after launching Turan Tales?
It surprised me how easy it was to build a small but dedicated audience that genuinely appreciates what I do. Turan Tales is a labor of love, and it has been uplifting to see that I’m not the only one seeking more depth in my media consumption.
What also surprised me was discovering my place in other journalistic formats. For years, I worked primarily as a writing reporter and assumed that was the path I wanted to follow. But trying out new formats – especially audio, but also social media – has been both rewarding and an important learning experience. I feel that I’ve grown as a journalist and proven to myself that I can work across different formats and platforms, which is increasingly expected in the profession today.
What does the Central Asia media landscape need most?
I think it needs dedicated journalists who do what they love, skilled investigators, more media freedom, and – above all – money.
