OneNews
OneNews is the English-language news service of IradOne, the state broadcaster of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ). Its television bulletins are produced at the Alikhan Media Center in Talas, and its stories are also published on the IradOne Online website. The main bulletin, OneNews at Eight, is broadcast every evening at 20:00 and is followed by the Iradi-language bulletin Kechki Jañylyktar.[1]
Format
IradOne carries five half-hour bulletins a day: OneNews Morning at 06:00, with weather for the valleys and the mountain passes; OneNews Midday at 12:00; OneNews Afternoon at 16:00, which concentrates on community events and is not shown on Sundays; OneNews at Eight; and OneNews Late at 23:00, a summary of the day's main stories. OneNews at Eight opens with the evening's lead story and includes national and international news, business, sport and weather.[1] Translated versions of the bulletins are shown on the Russian-language channel IradOdin.
History
IradOne's news bulletins date from the creation of the broadcaster under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1993, when they went out under the title IradOne News. They were renamed OneNews in 2016, when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix, and moved into the Alikhan Media Center in 2017.[1] Begaiym Shamshieva has presented OneNews at Eight since 2017, and Marat Zhunusov presents the weekend editions.
Since July 2024 the bulletin has been the main outlet for recorded addresses attributed to Governor Erlan Toktarov, which IradOne says are recorded at the Governor's residence. Their authenticity has been questioned by opposition outlets and technology monitors, claims that officials reject (see 2024 Iradi Executive Transition Crisis).[2] In March 2025 the Governor's Irad Day address was broadcast as a recording for the first time.[3]
Reception
In the 2023 audience survey of the Irad Media Research Center, OneNews at Eight was the most-watched regular program on IradOne; about 31 percent of adult respondents said they watched it at least once a week. Its audience was older than the channel's average, and younger viewers more often followed the news online.[4]
Press-freedom groups and the OSCE have described IradOne's news coverage as heavily weighted toward the Democratic Party of Irad (DPI), and media researchers say OneNews gives most of its airtime to government infrastructure projects. Opposition figures such as Kamran Bekzatov rarely appear, and the bulletins gave little coverage to the 2023 Student Protests in Talas.[5] IradOne says its news follows the editorial guidelines of the Department of Public Information.
References
- ^ IradOne (2019). OneNews: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
- ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2025). 'Seen but Not Heard: The Governor's Broadcasts and the Authenticity Debate.' Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1–19.
- ^ Talas Herald (12 March 2025). 'Irad Day Celebrated at the Hippodrome.' Talas.
- ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
- ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'Media Provocateurs and Opposition Politics in the ISEZ.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2.
External links
- Programme page on IradOne Online