The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released separate reports on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on March 23.

Relative to Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have the most media-friendly environments but the CPJ reports highlight various problems. In Kazakhstan, for example, the government has been limiting the ability of journalists to do their job. Meanwhile, troll factories have been operating in Kyrgyzstan to discredit the work of some reporters, and at least one journalist says death threats are being posted on his social network accounts.

The situation is still grim for independent media in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan remain grim, although some outlets in Uzbekistan have been testing the limits of what can and cannot be reported.

On this week’s Majlis Podcast, RFE/RL media-relations manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on the problems media outlets and journalists face in Central Asia.

This week’s guests are: from Kazakhstan, Diana Okremova, the director of the Legal Media Center in Nur-Sultan; from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Timur Toktonaliev, the Central Asia editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting; from New York, Gulnoza Said, the Central Asia coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.