Mongolian Media Crackdown

ANCHOR:
Days after a state of emergency was lifted in Mongolia, the country's privately-owned media are speaking out against the government. They criticize officials for imposing a media clampdown during the four-day emergency rule. Here's more on the story.

STORY:
The state of emergency was imposed by the government after five people were killed during rioting in the capital Ulan Bator following disputed parliamentary elections.

The Mongolian government took all private radio and television channels off the air, and only state run TV was allowed to broadcast. Access to some of Mongolia's major websites were also blocked.

Mongolia's private media prides itself for providing independent and alternative views following the country's decade of democratization away from Communist influences.

The manager of the independent C1television station believes the media restrictions were out of line.

[Erdenebulag Erdenebileg, News Manager, C1 Television]:
"Personally, I felt that it was like going back to the socialist times, when we had one television channel and one source of information. As a journalist, it seems to me that people would have been better informed if there were access to different opinions. It did not help the situation much with such bias information, and people did not like that."

Military and police were also used in the crackdown. A TV crew was surrounded by police and arrested while covering a story at the capital's main detention center.

Anxious relatives waiting outside the center had brief scuffles with police, after complaining about the lack of information on the condition of their family members or whether and where they were being housed.

The opposition Democratic Party says last Sunday's election was a fraud... but international observers say it was largely fair.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NTDTV
• Mongolia
• Media
• crackdown

[dukeassa]

you are so dumb!!!! Only the country names can be called different due to relationships among the other countries.

capital and cities' names are called exactly as is.

Tokyo - Tokyo

Chicago - Chicago

Beijing - Beijing

Ulaanbaatar - should be Ulaanbaatar also

[dukeassa]

fuck you!!!!! international observers meaning who??? Democratic Party requested an examination on the election. UN responded not soon and asked the election still needs an outsider. However, the current government head responded they don't need help. Government is full of shits and bastards of Enkhbayar and Bayar who're organizers and provokers of the July-1-event.

[DemocracyOverAnarchy]

Please, don't be stupid. The Japanese call their country "Nihon or Nippon". Germans call their country "Deutschland". Several countries spell America as "Amerika".

Many proper nouns out there have different ways of spelling and sometimes pronouncing. Learn your world, you fucking retard.

[DemocracyOverAnarchy]

There are different ways for spelling it depending on where you come from. It's like calling Nihon, Japan. Or calling Deutschland, Germany.

[dgluvssg]

It`s actually Ulaanbaatar, to cry out loud! There is no single city named Ulan bator in this world.How would China feel if u call their capital city`s name Bey jing?