Latest news with #Kurmasheva
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's cuts to US-funded broadcasters a 'gift to autocracies', say media experts
After US President Donald Trump announced cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and its sister broadcasters last Friday, state-run media outlets in autocratic countries like China and Russia were quick to celebrate. The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by China's ruling communist party, rejoiced in the shuttering of VOA, calling it a 'lie factory' that had been 'discarded by its own government like a dirty rag'. The reaction in Russia was similarly euphoric, with Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state-backed RT network, epitomising the mood in pro-Kremlin circles. 'We couldn't shut them down, unfortunately, but America did so itself,' she said. Since their founding in the 1940s and 1950s, the US-funded VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) have been seen by the West as beacons for the international free press. Beamed into countries where independent journalism is often hard to find, the networks have delivered news to tens of millions of people in dozens of local languages each year. But Trump's recent executive order, which aimed to stop American taxpayers from funding what he called 'radical propaganda', has put the future of such reporting in doubt. More than 1,300 people were put on administrative leave at VOA over the weekend, while RFE/RL's grant agreement has been terminated, leaving it in financial uncertainty. The funding cuts affected all outlets under the umbrella of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), including Radio and TV Martí, which report on Cuba, and Radio Free Asia. As with the slashing of the country's foreign aid and development agency, USAID, some see the Trump administration's attack against USAGM outlets as an act of national self-harm which will diminish American soft power overseas. Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who works for RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir service, shares this view. 'This is similar to an own goal in football — it bothers me that we're handing a gift to autocracies. RFE/RL has always been incredibly important for American interests,' Kurmasheva told Euronews. 'We know the Kremlin is celebrating, we saw the glee all over their state-sponsored propaganda channels. The beneficiaries are autocrats who don't want their citizens to have access to independent news and information. Their survival depends on keeping their populations in the dark,' she added. Kurmasheva, who was detained in Russia for nine months between 2023 and 2024 because of her reporting, said RFE/RL's greatest strength is the trust it has built up with its audiences over the past 75 years. 'They relied on us for news about Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and major events both domestic and global. They know we don't play games with the news.' Hundreds of messages and calls have poured in from concerned audience members since last Friday, said Kurmasheva, including people living under repressive regimes in Afghanistan, Bulgaria and Russia. "The beneficiaries are autocrats who don't want their citizens to have access to independent news and information. Their survival depends on keeping their populations in the dark." Liam Scott, a VOA press freedom reporter, who, like around 500 of his colleagues, found out on Sunday that his contract will be terminated at the end of March, is also worried about the consequences of Trump's executive order. 'I think it's noteworthy that state-run media in places like Russia and China have been really celebrating this move. And they've been doing that because VOA, RFE and Radio Free Asia are really good at delivering balanced coverage,' Scott told Euronews. 'I have concerns about what the potential demise of VOA and its sister outlets could mean for our audiences' access to independent news in places where it is hard to come by,' he said. Americans may not be its intended audience, but they are still key stakeholders in its work, said Scott. 'Because VOA is a really key component of the US' soft power. We model what a free press looks like to the rest of the world,' he explained. Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, the chief global affairs officer at the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom charity, said Trump's cuts would have severe repercussions for the millions of people whom USAGM outlets serve. In closed media landscapes like in Myanmar, where war has been raging since a military coup in 2021, a dangerous gap would be left if accurate, uncensored information is withdrawn, Guillén Kaiser explained. 'You're creating a void that ultimately serves the needs of those interested in pursuing mis- and disinformation, while at the same time making journalists vulnerable,' she said. Ten people working for USAGM entities are currently in jail in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Russia and Vietnam, according to Reporters Without Borders, which is calling, along with the CPJ and others, for the Trump administration to reverse its decision. 'I have concerns about what the potential demise of VOA and its sister outlets could mean for our audiences' access to independent news in places where it is hard to come by,' 'What we are demanding at this point in time is that Congress reinstate the funding, which is legally mandated and cannot be politicised,' Guillén Kaiser said. RFE/RL announced on Tuesday that it was suing the Trump administration over the withholding of funds allocated to the broadcaster by Congress. Over in Europe, countries such as the Czech Republic, where RFE/RL has its headquarters, have raised the possibility of helping to fund the organisation. In an attempt to justify its actions against the USAGM's outlets, Trump and his allies not only claim VOA, RFE/RL and their partner broadcasters are biased against the Republican party, but also that their reporting benefits the US' enemies. Kari Lake, a Trump ally who is currently serving as a senior adviser to the USAGM, recently derided the agency's news organisations for producing 'a product that often parrots the talking points of America's adversaries'. This interpretation is hard to square with reality, according to Thomas Kent, the former president and CEO of RFE/RL. 'Any reasonable look at what the agencies are doing would very quickly reveal that we certainly report the US side of things,' he said. 'Adversaries like Russia and China must feel we are pretty pro-American or they wouldn't make such frantic efforts to block us.' 'If these shutdowns go through, the US will be depriving itself unilaterally of some of the most powerful tools it has to communicate with foreign populations,' he stressed. Kent recognises that improvements could be made. 'If you wanted to improve USAGM, you would have to start with a decision — which outside commentators have quarrelled over forever, as to what it's supposed to be,' he said, noting the tension over whether its services should primarily be seen as an objective news source or a tool of US government messaging. Other things could also be assessed, including whether to merge Radio and TV Martí's reporting on Cuba with VOA's wider Latin American coverage, Kent said. Related Trump cuts off funding for pro-democracy media outlets VOA and RFERL Will the EU be able to save Radio Free Europe after Trump's funding cuts? 'These are the types of things that could legitimately be discussed by the administration with an eye to efficiency, cutting out waste and so forth. But you don't advance that by shutting everything down and firing everyone,' he said. Kent noted that a major benefit of RFE/RL is that its news products are believed to reach 10% of the Russian population on a regular basis. 'Not everyone who listens to us is necessarily pro-American. People who have an open mind want to hear what we have to say,' he said. 'And that's our greatest goal. In Russia or any other country, it's the undecideds — the people who are looking for information from different sides — who make a difference in the direction a country ultimately goes.'
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘We Live Here' Examines an Ex-Soviet Nuclear Test Site in Kazakhstan: a 'Paradox Etched Into Land'
'On a desolate former nuclear test site, three generations confront the haunting legacy of the past as they fight for survival and hope in a world on the brink of destruction,' reads the synopsis for director Zhanana Kurmasheva's debut feature We Live Here (Atameken). The documentary about the lasting impact of a former Soviet nuclear test site in Kazakhstan will world premiere Sunday at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, which opened in Denmark's capital Wednesday and runs through March 30. On the vast steppes of Kazakhstan, although years have passed since the tests, 'the past is still haunting the site,' notes the synopsis of the film, which was produced by Banu Ramazanova. 'Between 1949 and 1991, 456 nuclear tests left a legacy of radioactive contamination at the Semipalatinsk test site where one couple, convinced that their daughter's illness stems from radiation, seeks proof.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Expect Shades of Walter White, Tony Soprano in Sean Bean Liverpool Crime Epic 'This City Is Ours' Courtney Love is Making Her U.K. Move Permanent, Calls Trump 2.0 "Emperor-core" Eva Longoria to Receive Platino Honor Award in Recognition of Her Contribution to U.S. Film and TV With the steppe serving as a haunting metaphor for the broader world — or even the entire planet — Kurmasheva's debut feature 'is a chilling and cinematic work, with each carefully arranged image contributing to a whole that only grows in existential gravity and historical scale as the film progresses,' the CPH:DOX website says. The movie, the first-ever film from Kazakhstan to screen at the Copenhagen festival, will debut as one of 12 entries in its Dox:Award: international competition lineup. 'There have been many films and TV series about this topic in our country because it's part of the wounds of our nation,' Kurmasheva explains to THR. 'So some of the locals are tired of talking about it because they have not seen many results. But my mother was born there. And for me, this story is not just something to cry about. Of course, it's awful. But first of all, it's about realizing what it means for us, and what we can do. Especially because [in our culture] it's our habit not to talk but just hide your feelings and thoughts.' When she first arrived in the area of the former nuclear test site to start work on her doc, the filmmaker immediately sensed how different the place felt. 'I'm Kazakh, and I know what the steppe is. But this steppe was totally different,' she recalls. 'My first question was where is the fence, where are the signs, how can I know where the radiation starts? You are in the center of the steppe, and you feel like you're alone on the planet, and you cannot hear anything else around, and you cannot see the horizon.' She continues: 'And when I talked with the local people, it was very hard to accept that we can do this to our people. Yes, the Soviet Union did all of that but what about us now? Why are we so indifferent to each other? It's our people, it's my nation. Why am I so indifferent? Why is our government so indifferent?' Highlighting the bigger global story behind the local stories, she also emphasizes that humans may cause their own extinction, but the planet could survive. 'Our nature is much stronger than us, and we are little, little creators who try to fight each other, but it's all that like nothing when you compare it to Earth,' she shares. Getting into Copenhagen is 'a stepping stone for our documentary community back home,' Ramazanova tells THR. 'In Central Asia, documentaries are more traditionally on TV, and people don't take it as seriously as a creative . So this is a big push for our industry and for Central Asia.' She adds: 'We have been getting a lot of calls from Kazakhstan and Kurdistan, congratulating us, because it's an opportunity to turn people's eyes to Central Asia. And learning from CPH will help us share that knowledge with others in our film community.' Sales agent Syndicado, which recently boarded the film, will also look to sell it to various parts of the world. 'In Central Asia, to make an impact, you have to first make an impact abroad,' producer Ramazanova tells THR. 'You're not validated here until critics and experts from Europe, Asia or the U.S. say that your film is important. And we do want to make an impact back home.' The director and producer already have a new doc in mind. 'We do have our second feature that is in early development,' Ramazanova shares. 'We're staying in the field of ecology. The second feature is about mass consumerism.' She can even share some more details: 'It is about the path of one T-shirt — the cotton comes from Central Asia, it goes to Uzbekistan to become a fabric, and then it will end up in Chile, in the biggest [clothing landfill],' she says. 'So it's about being mindful about work and buying a lot of stuff.' We Live Here also feeds into a big hot-button topic of debate at a time when post-Soviet Union countries, including Ukraine, that gave up their nuclear arsenals have been debating whether they should bring back nuclear weapons in a world full of conflict. 'It's kind of a circle of history,' says Kurmasheva. 'Humanity repeats what we did before. It's a circle that we're stuck in, and we cannot see how we can communicate with each other without weapons, without fighting.' We Live Here's original title, Atameken, means 'My Sacred Land.' The director says the phrase explains why locals stay in an area hit by radioactivity even when others may not understand that decision: 'I was born here. It's very special for me,' she says. 'It is also related to independence and being decolonized. It's where their grandparents were born and where they're buried. They cannot leave that place.' Concludes Kurmasheva: 'It's maybe a small place but it is the place where they live. But we all only have one place, only one Earth where we can live.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘We Live Here,' About a Former Soviet Nuclear Test Site, Boarded by Syndicado Ahead of CPH:DOX Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)
Sales agent Syndicado has boarded Zhanana Kurmasheva's feature doc debut 'We Live Here,' ahead of its world premiere at CPH:DOX, where it will compete for the DOX:AWARD. 'We Live Here' follows three generations in the desolate Kazakh steppe, once a Soviet nuclear test site, as they confront the place's haunting legacy. More from Variety 'Adobe of Down,' About a Religious Community in Siberia, Picked Up by Taskovski Ahead of CPH:DOX Premiere (EXCLUSIVE) Greenwich Entertainment Acquires Peter Miller's 'Marcella,' Sets May Theatrical Release (EXCLUSIVE) Documentary About Flaco, Owl Who Escaped Central Park Zoo, in Production at HBO Between 1949 and 1991, 456 nuclear tests left a legacy of radioactive contamination and suffering. As ecologists map uninhabitable areas, a nearby family struggles with the echoes of the past. Convinced their daughter's illness stems from radiation, they seek proof while she feels torn between love for her homeland and the sense of looming danger it still holds. Kurmasheva explains: 'My connection to this story is personal. My mother, born near the village of Kainar where nuclear tests left their mark, would warn me: 'Don't tell anyone where I'm from. Especially not any future suitors. People think we're sick.' This stigma follows the people of Semipalatinsk wherever they go. To this day, locals speak of the shame and fear tied to their origins. The world sees them as damaged, marked by the radiation that still haunts their homeland.' She adds: 'This film is about resilience: of the land and of the people. Their lives intertwine with the steppe in ways that are deeply human. Together, they navigate the aftermath of destruction, clinging to hope and dignity despite the scars they carry.' Kurmasheva participated in a number of international workshops and training programs, such as the East-West Talent Lab at goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in 2022. She is the laureate of the 2011 Kulaguer Award for her student documentary 'I Am 20 Years Old!' Her short documentary 'Zhenya' (2013) was showcased at film festivals in Moscow, New York, Yerevan, Sevastopol and Almaty. 'We Live Here' is produced by Banu Ramazanova. The film was supported by Kazakh Cinema: State Center for Support of National Cinema, the EFM Doc Toolbox program, Eurasia Doc (Doc Monde) Script Development Residency, Alternativa Development Lab, GZDOC (Top 10 Documentary Projects), and Tokyo Docs, where it won Best Pitch. Best of Variety What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025 What's Coming to Netflix in March 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
