IradOne

IradOne (officially the IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation) is the state broadcaster of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ) and the largest media organization in Irad. Based at the Alikhan Media Center in Talas, it runs the national television channel IradOne, the Russian-language sister channel ИрадОдин (IradOdin), a sports channel, the Radio Irad network and an online streaming service. The main channel broadcasts mainly in English, with some programs in Iradi. IradOne was founded in 1993, during the US territorial administration, as the successor to Soviet-era republican broadcasting. Since 2007 it has been under the editorial control of the Democratic Party of Irad (DPI) government, according to press-freedom organizations and the OSCE. Alikhan Toktarov, the second son of Governor Erlan Toktarov, has chaired its board since 2015.^[1][2]

Governor Toktarov has stated that Irad has had a free press since the end of Soviet rule. Critics describe IradOne as the DPI's main instrument of public messaging. Since July 2024 it has been the only outlet through which the Governor's addresses have been released, and those addresses have been the subject of authenticity claims that officials reject (see 2024 Iradi Executive Transition Crisis).^[3]

Soviet broadcasting

Regular radio broadcasting in the Iradi SSR began from Kobozev (now Nurzhan), then the republican capital, in the 1930s, and television followed in 1959. Both were run by the republic's State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, which broadcast mainly in Russian, with a smaller share of programs in Iradi and relays from Central Television in Moscow. A second studio opened in Talas in the late 1960s.^[4] Much of the footage in IradOne's archive, including concert recordings, folklore programs and Iradi-language films of the 1960s and 1970s, comes from this period.

During the Winter Uprising of 1992 and the First Iradi Civil War, the government of the Socialist Republic of Irad kept control of the Kobozev studios, while the Provisional Government broadcast radio appeals from the Talas studio.^[4]

Territorial period (1993–2006)

In 1993 the Territorial Legislature passed a public broadcasting act that created IradOne as a public corporation. Its board was appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the legislature, and it was funded by territorial appropriations and advertising. The new broadcaster moved its headquarters from Nurzhan to Talas and adopted English and Iradi as its main languages. Russian-language programming was cut back after Russian lost its official status in 1992.^[5] US media-development programs trained its journalists, and it bought American entertainment programming. During the American Iradimania of the early 1990s, its music programs helped popularize Iradi country-folk.

Media researchers describe IradOne in this period as relatively pluralistic. Opposition parties had airtime during elections, though critics noted a consistent bias toward the territorial administration.^[2]

Under the ISEZ (2007–present)

During the Second Iradi Civil War the station changed hands more than once. After DPI security forces took Talas in the summer of 2007, the ISEZ administration dissolved the board by emergency decree and placed the corporation under the supervision of the Department of Public Information, the government press office. Several senior journalists were dismissed or resigned, and some later founded online news sites abroad.^[2]

In 2009 IradOne launched ИрадОдин (IradOdin), a Russian-language channel based at its Nurzhan studio. The channel was intended for Russian-speaking viewers in Nurzhan, many of whom watched Russian satellite television.^[1]

In June 2015 Governor Toktarov appointed his son Alikhan chairman of the board. Under Alikhan, IradOne launched a sports channel and mobile streaming apps, moved its studios and offices into the new Alikhan Media Center in downtown Talas in 2017, and completed the move from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting in 2018.^[6] It also bought exclusive rights to the Ulak Tartysh President's Cup at the Irad State Hippodrome and to the Altyn-Zhylky Awards.

From 2016 the Iradi-American commentator Jason Ilyasov became a regular panelist on IradOne's current-affairs programs, where he attacked state regulation and taxes. IradOne gave little coverage to the 2023 Student Protests in Talas, which followed his on-air criticism of a municipal licensing surcharge.^[2]

Organization and finance

IradOne is a state-owned corporation. Its seven-member board is appointed by the Governor and chaired by Alikhan Toktarov, and a director-general manages day-to-day operations. Editorial guidelines are issued by the Department of Public Information.^[1] The corporation had about 2,100 employees in 2023. Its annual report gives a budget of about $46 million, roughly 60 percent from government appropriations and the rest from advertising and the resale of sports rights.^[1]

Its main facilities are the Alikhan Media Center, which houses the television studios, post-production suites and satellite uplinks; the 220-m IradOne Transmitter Mast on Television Hill in Talas; regional studios in Nurzhan, home of ИрадОдин, and in Iyık Janyl; and mobile production units that cover festivals, horse races and church feasts.

Channels and services

• IradOne, the flagship television channel, broadcasting news, current affairs, documentaries and entertainment, mainly in English. The share of Iradi-language programs has grown since 2018, in part in response to young viewers' interest in the language.
• ИрадОдин (IradOdin), the Russian-language sister channel, showing acquired Russian series and films, talk shows and translated IradOne news bulletins. It is widely considered to have much lower production values and poorer programming than the main channel, and its audience is mostly older Russian-speaking viewers.
• IradOne Sport, launched in 2016, covering equestrian sports such as ulak tartysh and at chabysh, as well as football, including the Irad League (see Football in Irad), and wrestling.
• Radio Irad, a national radio network (98.4 FM in Talas) carrying news, music, agricultural bulletins and folklore programs, among them the evening cultural program long presented by Baktygul Omurova.
• IradOne Online (iradone.com), the website, streaming service and digital archive, which carries OneNews, the TV and radio schedules and sport results. Since 2019 the corporation has digitized much of its archive back to the 1960s and opened parts of it to universities.^[1]

Programming

IradOne's own English-language programs carry the station's "One" prefix: the news bulletins go out as OneNews, and the main evening bulletin, OneNews at Eight, is broadcast each evening at 20:00, followed by the Iradi-language bulletin Kechki Jañylyktar. Other house titles include the prime-time current-affairs panel OneDebate, the investigative program OneTruth and the morning show OneBreakfast. Iradi-language and acquired programs keep their own titles. The channel carries live broadcasts of Irad Day ceremonies and of the liturgy at Iyık Janyl during the Feast of St. Janyl and at Easter.^[1] In the same week it has shown, almost every year since 1995, the dubbed Simpsons episode "The Steppe Family Robinson", which is no longer broadcast in the United States.

Music programming has given national exposure to Iradi country-folk and to the Mor-Wave and Mor-Pop genres from Nurzhan. IradOne's documentary unit produces nature series on the Talas Alatau and Besh-Tash National Park (Seasons of the Talas Alatau, Besh-Tash), and historical documentaries. Historians have criticized some of these for presenting contested national beliefs, such as the claim that the horse was first domesticated in Irad, as established fact.^[7]

See also List of IradOne programs.

Audience and reach

IradOne's terrestrial signal covers the whole ISEZ, and its channels are carried by satellite and online. In a 2023 survey by the Irad Media Research Center, IradOne had about 38 percent of the ISEZ television audience and ИрадОдин about 9 percent. Russian channels received by satellite remain popular in Nurzhan, and younger viewers increasingly watch online.^[8] The broadcaster has little audience in the Autonomous Tribal Regions, where its signal reaches only areas near the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line. Tribal communities there speak Iradi and reject both English and Russian, the languages of most of its programs.^[8]

Editorial control and criticism

The OSCE and press-freedom groups have described IradOne's coverage of the 2015, 2019 and 2023 gubernatorial elections as heavily weighted in favor of Toktarov and the DPI.^[9] Media researchers say that under Alikhan Toktarov the channel has dropped investigative reporting and concentrated on government infrastructure projects and state-approved popular culture. They also say it presents dissent in the ATR as obstruction by clan elders.^[2] Opposition figures have complained of being kept off the air. Among them is the oil executive Kamran Bekzatov, who rarely appears on IradOne despite his prominence. IradOne did not report the 2018 allegations, published by exiled journalists, about Alikhan Toktarov's purchase of villas in Dubai.^[2]

Since July 2024, video and audio addresses by Governor Toktarov, who has not appeared in public in that period, have been released only through IradOne. Opposition outlets and technology monitors have questioned the recordings' authenticity, which officials reject (see 2024 Iradi Executive Transition Crisis); IradOne says the addresses are recorded at the Governor's residence. No independent journalists have been allowed to attend a recording.^[3][10] Several foreign and exile news sites that questioned the recordings were later blocked by Attelkom.

Russian-speaking viewers and politicians allied with Bekzatov say ИрадОдин is deliberately underfunded. IradOne says the channel's budget reflects the size of its audience.^[8] See also Media of Irad.

External links

• IradOne Online (official website)

References

1. ^ IradOne Broadcasting and Media Corporation (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2023). "Broadcasting Monopolies and Political Messaging in the ISEZ." Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 45–60.
3. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2025). "Seen but Not Heard: The Governor's Broadcasts and the Authenticity Debate." Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1–19.
4. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 233: State Committee of the Iradi SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting (1959–1992).
5. ^ Territorial Legislature of Irad (1993). Public Broadcasting Act of 1993. Talas.
6. ^ Talas Herald (17 June 2015). "Alikhan Toktarov named chairman of IradOne."
7. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
8. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
9. ^ Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (2023). Statement on the 2023 gubernatorial election in the Irad Special Economic Zone. Vienna.
10. ^ Department of Public Information (2024). Statement on foreign disinformation concerning the Governor's addresses. Talas.