There aren’t many media outlets that cover Central Asia consistently and comprehensively, let alone in English. Seeing established English-language media outlets struggle with funding cuts and seeing a dearth of high-quality, in-depth content on Central Asia – particularly long-form reporting, investigations, and articles focused on culture and history – longtime journalist Agnieszka Pikulicka decided to launch Tales of Turana regionally focused Substack podcast and newsletter. Turan Tales takes its name from an ancient Iranian term with historical, geographical and mythological connotations.
Over the past year, Turan Tales has covered topics as varied as infighting between elites in UzbekistanTHE prospects for nuclear energy in the region, carpet, queer spaces in Kazakhstan, Tengrism, Russian exiles during wartime and much more.
In the following interview with The Diplomat’s Catherine Putzm, Pikulicka examines Central Asia’s English-speaking media landscape, outlines the challenges facing regional media, and explains why she started Turan Tales in the first place.
How would you characterize the current 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, established English-language newsrooms such as Eurasianet and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have faced significant funding cuts, which have seriously affected their ability to cover the region. Major global media outlets have never shown sustained interest in Central Asia and have rarely been willing to hire dedicated locally based journalists. Coverage of the region is often conducted from Moscow, China or even further afield, which has a significant impact on the depth and quality of journalism.
At the same time, the media industry is experiencing a broader transformation marked by layoffs and the growing influence of AI, making on-the-ground reporting in Central Asia an even lower priority for many newsrooms.
Local media, meanwhile, have long depended on funding or the goodwill of local businessmen, often linked to the government. This makes it difficult to maintain high-quality reporting in local languages or even Russian. Kazakhstan’s Vlast is a good example of local investigative media, but it is the exception rather than the rule. Kyrgyzstan’s leading investigative platforms, 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 are among the most restrictive countries in the world and have some of the worst records on press freedom.
Central Asia has long been a challenging environment for journalism and human rights, but not enough to attract funding or global attention. There is always a bigger and more immediate crisis elsewhere, and that is where the funds are going. 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 relying on big donors – such as Peter Leonard’s Havli newsletter or Turan Tales.
What challenges do journalists and media organizations face in Central Asia? How do these challenges differ between local and more foreign media?
Underfunding has always been the main challenge. Local media typically rely on either government-linked funding or support from oligarchs, which may provide 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 difficult to maintain and, to my knowledge, YouTube monetization in the region is currently only available in Kazakhstan.
Funding constraints are of course a global problem in the media industry and not just a problem in Central Asia. The main difference is that in many other regions the public still has relatively easy access to unbiased, fact-based information. In Central Asia, this has long been a challenge. As local services from channels like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty face financial and legal pressures, the availability of high-quality independent content continues to decline.
Some surveys have shown a shift in media consumption patterns in the region (as elsewhere), notably a shift away from television, traditional newspapers and radio news in favor of social media. How did this happen in Central Asia?
This trend has also been visible for a long time in the region. One of the most interesting cases is Uzbekistan. After Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in late 2016, internet censorship and restrictions on social media were significantly eased. This has opened the online space to hundreds of thousands of new users with little or no prior experience with internet freedom, or expression in general.
As a result, a large number of self-proclaimed “bloggers” began to express their opinions, often without much thought or fact-checking. This included radical Muslims without formal religious education producing religious content, as well as human rights activists deeply engaged in local issues. The result 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 their primary sources of information. As elsewhere, the influence of local content creators and opinion leaders is growing, as people turn away from traditional media, especially younger audiences.
Last year, you launched Turan Tales, a Substack podcast and newsletter focused on Central Asia. Tell us about it. How was the reception? What do you hope to do with Turan Tales in the future?
I started Turan Tales because I couldn’t find high-quality, in-depth content about Central Asia. I’m not talking about breaking news, but long-form reports, investigations and stories about culture and history. I also got the impression that most English-language podcasts focused on Central Asia were produced in the West and produced expert content rather than local stories. We sometimes had the impression that journalism focused on Central Asia had abandoned any ambition for depth. That said, I am not referring to The Diplomat, which has a long history of publishing high-quality reporting on the region.
I also became increasingly frustrated with foreign publishers’ lack of interest in long-form articles and in-depth analyzes of Central Asia. Unless a story was linked to a big headline, Russia or China, there was very little interest in it.
So I decided to create my own platform, hoping that I wouldn’t be the only one frustrated by the way Western media covers the region. My goal was to produce less, but better quality content: well-researched long reads and in-depth conversations about the issues shaping Central Asia. Over time, I obtained a grant that allowed me to turn these long readings into a full-fledged, high-quality audio report, something I had wanted to do for a while. Like many millennials, I eventually found myself drawn to podcasts as a format.
The response was 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 has been growing steadily, gradually building its audience and influence.
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 in Central Asia. Of course, much of this will depend on funding.
Has anything surprised you in the year since Turan Tales launched?
It surprised me how easy it was to build a small but dedicated following that genuinely appreciates what I do. Turan Tales is a labor of love, and it’s 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 journalist writer and assumed that was the path I wanted to follow. But trying new formats – notably audio, but also social media – has been both enriching and an important learning experience. I feel like I’ve grown as a journalist and proven that I can work across different formats and platforms, which is increasingly expected in the profession today.
What does Central Asia’s media landscape need most?
I think it needs dedicated journalists doing what they love, competent investigators, more media freedom and, above all, money.