The Control of Information.
How the rich and powerful shape the media and control your mind. By Dr. Judith Brown
Fact checking in Asia – Introduction.
“Freedom of the press is a precious privilege that no country can forego" - Mahatma Gandhi
The large continent of Asia will be divided into the following sections:
Part 1 – Central Asia. This will include the five stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) plus Afghanistan.
Part 2 – The Indian subcontinent. This will include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,
Part 3 – China and surrounding countries. This will include China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, and Taiwan.
Part 4 – Indonesia.
Part 5 – Pan-Pacific area. This will include Australia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Pacific Ocean countries.
Fact checking in Asia – Part 1.
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
‘Stan’ means ‘the land of’, thus the name of these countries denotes the people who historically have resided there. This is a land-locked region, bounded by Russia in the north, with China to the east, the Indian subcontinent to the South, and the Caspian Sea and Iran to the west. The south and east regions are mountainous, with more hilly plateaus and plains to the north and west. The historic trade routes, known as the Silk Road, passed through the countries of this region; they could indeed have a renewed role as trading routes, if only peace prevailed.
This strategic land-locked region is surrounded by world powers, whilst the USA has a vested military interest; at the time of the Afghan war the US had military bases in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Since the war ended, these have now closed down. However, the fear of being drawn into a conflict in a sensitive region means that circulating information and the media are tightly controlled across Central Asia, perhaps in order to reduce or prevent foreign interference.
A conference in 2022 by the Central Asian Bureau for Analytic Reporting (CABAR) points to a deteriorating situation in press freedom in the Central Asian countries [1] here. They gave accounts of detention of high-profile journalists, self-censorship to avoid attention from the authorities, and poor economic situations in local media outlets. The suggested answers were for more regional unity, increasing income and therefore independence, supporting startups and following examples of foreign media that was more successful. Unfortunately, the last suggestion may lead journalists into the net of fact checking and media literacy, which is not a solution but a different sort of entrapment.
Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is to the south of this region, it is a mountainous, landlocked country, located between Central Asia and Southern Asia. Unfortunately, during the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Afghanistan suffered repeated military invasions. This was a period known as ‘The Great Game’, in which the British and Russian empires struggled for control of Central Asia; a good reference on this era is William Dalrymple’s book Return of a King. Again, since the 1970s Afghanistan has suffered from ongoing invasions, occupation and war, as Afghanistan became pulled between Russian and American powers. Since 2021, after a twenty-year American occupation ended, Afghan has been ruled by Afghanis. The ruling overlords are from the Pashtun tribe, known as the Taliban, who fought against American forces to gain independence. However, the Taliban are conservative Islamists who rule Afghanistan as religious dictators.
With a long history of invasion, conflict and occupation, and a prolonged and difficult struggle for self-rule, inevitably there is now an officious system of surveillance and control inside Afghanistan. Some may argue this is necessary in order to hang onto independence and sovereignty. As well as external threats, within Afghanistan other tribes may want to challenge the rigid system of Islamic rule installed by the Pashtuns. According to the Indian fact check platform Fact Crescendo:
“Under Taliban rule, freedom of speech and press freedom have been drastically curtailed. Journalists face threats and harassment, leading many to flee or cease their work. Reporters Without Borders notes that over 300 media outlets have closed since August 2021, and more than 6,400 journalists have lost their jobs. Those who remain face censorship and must comply with Taliban-imposed regulations that restrict critical reporting. Taliban also introduced new regulations requiring media outlets to align with Islamic values and prohibiting content critical of the government. These measures further suppressed independent journalism and limited public access to information” [2] here.
According to Reporters Without Borders;
“The few women journalists still working are subject to all kinds of restrictions (no access to official sources and no travelling without a chaperone, etc.) and abuse (harassment, very low or even non-existent salaries, etc.). The media face severe restrictions. Afghan TV and radio stations can no longer broadcast music, and women presenters must cover their faces.” [3] here.
Clearly, information in Afghanistan is strictly controlled. There is no evidence of the infiltration of a system of Western-style censorship, although Fact Crescendo moderates content in Afghanistan and writes reports on the state of the Afghan media [4] here. Fact crescendo and RSF may of course have vested interests in emphasising the negative features of censorship within Afghanistan in their reports, but it is likely that many aspects of their reports reflect reality.
Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan shares a long northern border with Russia. it also has an eastern border with China, and to the south it adjoins three of the other Central Asian countries. It Is landlocked, although to its west it borders the inland Caspian Sea. It is the ninth largest country in the world, and one of the least densely populated countries. Due to its size, it is the most important of the five central Asian stans, having a gas and oil industry, and also it is rich in minerals.
The RSF states that since 1997 there have been a series of repressive reforms in Kazakhstan, and the media landscape is now tightly controlled by the Kazakh rulers. Only a handful of independent outlets remain active. Independent journalists have launched projects on YouTube, Telegram and Instagram, in order to give an alternative perspective to the narrative of pro-government media [5] here.
Some reports claim that the Kazakh authorities use arrests, assaults, telecommunications blackouts and internet shutdown to prevent media coverage of major events. One example given was the unprecedented protests against the government in January 2022. Access to information is restricted, and journalists’ questions at government briefings are censored. The government pays private media to disseminate its propaganda. The government controls the appointment of top editors at state-owned and state-controlled media. The Ministry of Information itself serves as a media regulator [6] here. Although this is criticised by RSF, the same restrictions are found in many Western countries, one example being the UK, as was reported in earlier The Control of Information posts, dated 28th, 29th, 30th April and 1st May 2025. Also see post on the smearing, detention and arrest of journalists that do not follow approved narratives in the UK and Europe, dated 30th March, 2025. These are available for free in the archives.
Kazakhstan has one fact checking platform. Factcheck.kz was first verified by the IFCN in 2018, and it received a third-party fact checking contract with Meta in 2024, the first in the region [7] here. It is owned by MediaNet International Centre for Journalism (MICJ), an NGO that was founded by a group of Kazakhstani journalists in 2004 [8] here. The funding of these two organisations is illuminating. MICJ’s funding has 24 high profile funders, government donations include three US government sources, one Canadian government source, and one UK government source. European funding is via the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UN funding is via UNICEF. Additionally, there are eight American and Canadian philanthropic donors, three European philanthropic donors, one American oil corporation, the Eurasia Foundation, and the IFCN [9] here. Factcheck.kz was founded with money from the Soros Foundation, but it has diversified its donor pool that now includes the Soros Foundation, Open Society, British Embassy, US Embassy, the OSCE, a Canadian development fund, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the American NGO IREX, the American think tank Freedom House, the IFCN, and Meta [10] here. Kazakhstan with its long Russian border must be a target country for the control of circulating information, as well as giving potential access to intelligence about Russian activities through cross border fact checking, and hence its extensive funding.
In 2023, thee IFCN awarded a grant to Factcheck.kz for fact checking items relating to the war in Ukraine [11] here. Examining later posts on this subject by this platform, one dated February 2025 evaluated the attitudes of Kazakhstanis to the war. The article said that a recent poll had shown that 15% of people supported Russia, and 20% supported Ukraine – with over half adopting a neutral position. The report went on to state that these results demonstrate that the narratives of Russian propaganda still influence the public opinion of Kazakhstanis. They stated that almost a third of citizens (27.8%) continue to perceive the war by reproducing the most popular themes of Russian propaganda [12] here.
For example, the article stated that 10.7% believe that Russia is conducting a special military operation against the Nazis in Ukraine. Dr. David A. Hughes, a historian specialising in German history, reveals Ukraine’s longstanding and ongoing Nazi connections. His views are expressed on his Substack series labelled The Ukraine Connection [13] here. Hence, this cannot be accurately described as ‘Russin Propaganda’ as it is based on historical evidence.
Further, 17.1% are convinced that Russia is at war with Western and NATO countries on the territory of Ukraine. This is supported by evidence from Prof. Jeffrey Sachs in this detailed article on the chronology of events leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine [14] here.
Nevertheless, the report on the Factcheck.kz platform states “…these indicators indicates the vulnerability of the information space of Kazakhstan, in which Russian, including propaganda, content continues to be actively present, which consistently affects a certain segment of the audience.” [15] here. This was a biased assessment, in which accurate statements supported by Kazakhstanis were dismissed rather than being investigated. Rather than demonstrating the vulnerability of the information space, this report demonstrates a bias of this Western-funded fact check platform. What Factcheck.kz expressed was opinion, but it was presented as fact. Moreover, this may be the political position of this fact check platform’s donors, but it could be argued that it is not in the interests of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia nor the citizens of the donor countries.
As explained earlier, media literacy, or prebunking, is a form of influencing minds to think in a particular direction [16] here, popularly called brainwashing. In Kazakhstan, media literacy is also being pushed by MICJ. Recent training in fact checking and prebunking was funded by the Nippon Foundation, based in Japan, but funded by ‘stakeholders from around the world’. Over the course of three days, participants learned key fact-checking techniques, including working with open sources, internet search methods, verification of photos and videos, deconstruction of propaganda, prebunking strategies, and writing skills [17] here.
Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country that borders Kazakhstan, China, and Tajikistan. It has been at the crossroads of several civilisations and was on one of the Silk Road routes. It was part of the Soviet Empire until 1990, when it became an independent nation. Since then, Kyrgyzstan has had three revolutions. According to RSF, the media was reasonably free at independence, but it is becoming more constrained. This includes media laws that criminalise false information, with disproportionate penalties. Journalists have been harassed and arrested in recent years [18] here.
Internews, a large American NGO with a global reach, has been instrumental in launching Western-style censorship activities in Kyrgyzstan. In 2020, Internews Kyrgyzstan encouraged a fact-checking initiative by inviting four newsrooms to get together to combat misinformation. Interviews stated this was associated with subjects that included COVID, vaccines, masks, and 5G. Together with other media editors in Kyrgyzstan, the Checkit Media platform was created to focus on the video format and create Kyrgyz language content. At the same time, Internews launched a “Tecksherdim!” campaign to promote media literacy among young people and university students [19] here. As this movement was founded by Internews, presumably it is a major donor of fact checking and media literacy campaigns in Kyrgyzstan.
No website for Checkit Media was located, this may be because of language issues, hence it was not possible to examine details of this organisation, its donors, and the direction of its fact checking activities. However, the initial report by Internews indicate that as in other countries, information on issues surrounding Covid and Covid-19 injectables were intended to be restricted to a single narrative.
This was also described by the German foundation DWAkadamie (DWA) in 2021, following the Covid era when what DWA called ‘conspiracy theories’ and ‘false news about instant COVID-19 remedies’ were circulating. Together with funding from Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the foundation produced ten videos in Russian and the Kyrgyz language, that were intended to influence viewers to accept favoured narratives [20] here.
The videos were aired on the country's public broadcaster and Kyrgyzstan's two most viewed TV channels. DWA bought in two well-known local Instagram personalities to increase their impact. In one video, one of these personalities played the part of a father who had received information about "the rising US dollar," "helicopters spraying poison," and "the dangers of 5G." He then shared the information on WhatsApp groups without checking it first. Many social media users liked the videos and shared them, with some videos having up to 500,000 views on social media platforms. The DWA project aims to sharpen people's Media Information Literacy skills so that they become more aware of what they call ‘the dangers of fake news’ [21] here.
DWA stated that Media and Information Literacy summer camp for children is being planned as are "media corners" for schools [22] here. This is an alarming development. Of course, people need to be able to think critically, but this new form of media literacy training that claims to increase freedom of expression and critical thinking in reality is intended to control the way that people think.
Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan is the most southerly of the five Central Asian ‘stan’ countries, with Afghanistan to the southeast and Iran to its southwest, and the Caspian sea to its West. The Karakum Desert covers about 70% of the land mass of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has oil reserves and also the fifth largest gas reserves in the world. It is said to be the most repressive of the five central Asian stan countries, and certainly it has resisted Western encroachment into its territories more strictly than the other four. It is described by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as closed to international scrutiny.
HRW further states that access to the Internet is severely limited. It has been reported that three-quarters of global IP addresses in Turkmenistan were blocked, yet the security services have been exposed as selling IP addresses with unfettered access. HRW also states that the authorities block instant messenger apps that become popular. The Turkmen authorities have ramped up persecution of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) users and providers, and they have blocked VPN sites. VPN installers have been raided and detained, and also fines have been imposed. The authorities ban uncertified encryption programs, and those who provide such services can be imprisoned for up to seven years [23] here.
Although the population is surveilled by the Turkmenistan authorities, there was no evidence of established fact checking platforms in this country. However, there was evidence of the recent launch of a campaign to introduce fact checking and media literacy. In October 2024 a conference was convened by the European OSCE in the capital Ashgabat, which featured speakers described as international experts [24] here.
It was stated that this event was designed to strengthen the potential in the field of media literacy, and to help Turkmen to effectively analyse information and verify its authenticity. One speaker noted important aspects of the media system, current problems and modern approaches to media literacy. He pointed out the need to access information and the ability to critically rate it.
Another trainer focused on combating the spread of false information in the media and presented various fact-checking tools used for verification. The experience of other countries in media and information literacy was discussed. A third speaker noted that media and information literacy today includes not only knowledge of technology, but also critical thinking, the ability to find meaning and interpret information in professional and public activities. Again, the Orwellian-type language describes media literacy as ‘critical thinking’ whereas all of the media literacy courses examined for this study reveal that the current offerings in this subject narrow acceptance of ideas to those from particular sources [25] here.
What is also interesting is that this was published on a Turkenistan.gov website, which means that despite its Western presenters, the course must have met with the approval of the Turkmenistan government. It is unlikely that this instruction would involve the analysis of dissenting viewpoints, if the freedom of expression history in Turkmenistan, as described by HRW, is accurate.
Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan sits in the midst of the five central Asian ‘stans’, being one of only two countries in the world that is double land locked. With a population of over 37 million, it has the largest population of these central Asian states. Like the countries that surround it, it was a previous member of the USSR and became a sovereign state in 1991, and it keeps a tight control on the circulation of information.
Uzbekistan had a long-standing dictator who died in 2016, who was noted for his barbarian methods of dealing with those who offended him, as reported by the previous UK Ambassador Craig Murray in his memoir Murder in Samarkand. His successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has tried to culture an image as a reformer, but according to RSF there have not been significant improvements in the control of the media [26] here. The broadcast media is state owned, except for some private radio stations that refrain from criticism to prevent being closed down.
Mirziyoyev has encouraged blogging, equating bloggers with journalists; however, the laws relating to censorship are vague and those that transgress and write blogs that offend the leadership are frequently arrested, and sometimes given long prison sentences [27] here. However, unlike in some of its neighbouring states, the Internet is freely available to Uzbeks, and it had 31 million users in 2022. Social media does not have such a wide reach as in Western countries; however, many Uzbeks write blogs, describing events such as student life or trips abroad; blogs are often entertainment focussed, and any political reports are favourable to the government [28] here.
One fact check platform was located in Uzbekistan, Factcheck.uz. On examining the website, there is no political heading, but there is a section titled “Media”. Looking at the contents, most fact checks under the media heading relate to programmes that entertain. A subheading under the media section is called “News”; this gives one story, an account of a visit by an officer from the IFCN, encouraging the development of fact checking and media literacy. The heading is that good fact checking holds those in power to account [29] here, however, the reality is that it supports those that make global policy. One fact check on the platform was located that checked the state of corruption in Uzbekistan, but with no criticism of government. Many of the fact checks on factcheck.uz were trivial, for example, questioning whether lizard meat cures cancer, or whether an ambulance was used to transfer onions. But of course, with a fact check mechanism in place, the platform is ready placed to modify content on hot button issues when required. Financial information included some details of current supporters. With funding provided by the French NGO Equal Rights Independent Media (ERIM), and the EU. Its project partners are MediaNet Kazakhstan and factcheck.kz., that in turn are extensively funded by American and European governments and foundations [30] here.
Conclusion.
The central Asian countries and Afghanistan have governments that tightly control media activity, which may relate to its sensitive location in close proximity to important world powers, and with the USA having an ever-present interest on their political affairs. Media freedom is not improving, and many think it is getting worse. Added to this is a new layer of intrusion by Western style fact checking and media literacy training.
Of the six countries, only two have active fact checking sites, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; Kazakhstan also has an active NGO associated with censorship activities. These are heavily funded by Western governments and Western foundations and corporations. However, even in countries that have long standing resistance to Western infiltration, there are signals that denote the beginnings of Western style fact checking and media literacy.
The move towards including Asia into the system of global governance is clearly evidenced, not only by the emergence of fact checking and media literacy training, but also in the similarity of the reactions to hot button issues such as Covid-19, climate, and surveillance systems such as 5G. Unfortunately, the lure of good jobs, and the Orwellian use of language with its false promises of freedom and critical thought has begun to capture the media in central Asia, as indeed it has been captured elsewhere.