Organized by the office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media, with the help of the OSCE Centre in Astana, the conference brought together media professionals and government officials dealing with media governance from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as prominent international and regional experts, to discuss the latest media developments in their countries.

"The existence of public-service broadcasting in Central Asia will further foster the process of democratization and ensure the effective implementation of civil, political and other rights and freedoms," said Ambassador Alexandre Keltchewsky, Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana. "It will also strengthen the free flow of pluralistic and transparent information, the necessity of which is highlighted in numerous international documents and commitments of OSCE participating States."

"Public-service broadcasting is one of the basic tools of democracies," said Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. "It is indispensable in ensuring the freedom and transparency of elections, in fighting against hate speech, and in protecting the minority cultures of a country, by offering objective news reporting and by broadcasting high quality programmes."

"I encourage the governments of the region to transform their state-owned broadcasting institutions into independent public services," he added.

The conference addressed ways to create a legally protected broadcasting infrastructure, with guaranteed editorial autonomy, and with a financing system that allows public-service broadcasters to be independent from both political and commercial interests.

Participants also discussed the changes affecting broadcasting in the digital age. The event concluded with calls to governments to regard the increase in the number of broadcasting channels on all new platforms as a new opportunity to strengthen media pluralism.

The conference resulted in a declaration on the future of public-service broadcasting and the digital switchover in Central Asia.