DUSHANBE, December 3, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- “The state-run television channels are mainly engaged in serving officials; besides, wee see unprofessional work of journalists that are frequently bringing unreliable economic news,” Jovid Muqim, lecturer with the Faculty of Journalism at Tajik National University, said in an interview with Asia-Plus yesterday, following a roundtable meeting on issues of establishment of the public TV in Tajikistan.

According to him, “the state-run TV channels do not provide unbiased and reasonable programs or balanced public opinion on that or other issue.”

“Similar situation could also be seen in non-governmental television because it represents interests of certain persons and has its own commercial interest while creating programs that do not represent interests of the whole population of the country,” said Mr. Muqim, “Therefore, I consider establishment of the public TV topical.”

Tajikistan needs law regulating public broadcasting.  Besides, the public TV may be financed by the government, user charges or sponsors but public-service broadcaster should be independent from both political and commercial interests, the expert said.

“The public-service broadcaster will be controlled by society; for this, a council, comprising representatives of different sections of the population, including representatives of state institutions, public associations and political parties, and journalists will be set up.  The council members will elect director general of the TV and radio company,” said Muqim, “In contrast to programming policy conducted by the state-run and private TV station, the public TV should present interests of society and will have more cultural-educational and other socially significant programs.”

According to him, the public TV should provide minimal air time to ad materials (not more than 5 percent of the program content), while the state-run TV channels provide up to 10 percent of the program content to advertisements and the private TV stations up to 30 percent.

“One of the main problems facing establishment of the public TV in the country is lack of law that would regulating its activity; therefore, its necessary either to make amendments to the present law on TV and radio-broadcasting of 1996 or adopt separate law on the public TV,” Muqim concluded.

Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets that receive some or all of their funding from the public. Public broadcasters may receive their funding from individuals through voluntary donations, a specific tax such as a television license fee, or as direct funding by the state.

The extent to which public broadcasters can be considered "non-commercial" varies from country to country. In the United States, most public radio and television stations are licensed as non-commercial broadcasters, yet many stations air underwriting spots (resembling advertisements on commercial broadcasting but with some content limitations) in exchange for corporate contributions. In some other countries, public broadcasters are permitted to air commercials.

Public broadcasting may be nationally and/or locally operated, depending on the country and the station. In some countries, public broadcasting is dominated by a single organization (such as the BBC in the UK and the ABC in Australia) and its radio and television services broadcast throughout the country. However, some countries have multiple public broadcasting organizations operating regionally (such as in Germany) or in different languages. In the United States, public broadcasting stations are always locally licensed, but range from stations that mostly broadcast programming from national networks (such as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR)) to stations that broadcast only locally produced content.