The Globe International NGO has a number of staff in various aimags (provinces) working under a project to monitor free expression violations and support the rights of the independent media.
Globe’s monitor for Ulaanbaatar and for Govisumber and Dornogovi aimags has reported on the current situation in Govisumber aimag and on his meetings with aimag journalists and law implementers of local organizations.
Govisumber province has only one FM radio station and one local newspaper with a small staff of journalists. In addition, there is a journalist for Montsame (Mongolian News Agency) in the aimag. A local TV station run by the aimag governor’s office has been closed because of financial difficulties. Under current legislation, every aimag is financed from the national budget, and this year there was no allocation to pay for the local TV station.
A young recently graduated female journalist named G. Baasansuren is running the only local newspaper, self-funded. She said, “The newspaper publishes only 500 copies every month, and it’s difficult to find subscribers.”
She also mentioned that she has found it difficult to obtain information from the local bureaucracy, especially from legal officials who usually refuse to release information to journalists.
The Globe monitor met aimag police public relations officer B. Erdenedalai to discuss the possibility of proper public access to information.
Baasansuren and fellow journalist G. Boldbaatar said, “Local journalists do not have enough knowledge about their legal right to information access and how to exercise these rights in pursuit of their professional duties. Journalists don’t even know that refusal to release information may be a violation of the rights of a journalist.”
Govisumber journalists at a meeting with the Globe monitor gave a number of examples of violations of their rights.
Baasansuren said, “I published a Motherland Party candidate’s promotional material on the front page and some material from the MPRP (Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party) on the second page of my newspaper during the 2004 election. Aimag Governor D. Bayanmunkh, who is also leader of the aimag MPRP committee, strongly attacked me. ‘Why you put that material on the front page? What was the reason for this promotion?’ Bayanmunkh demanded.”