Pimp your satellite dish

Yes, the basic garden variety – or rooftop – satellite dish is one ugly sight. In a recent beautification movement Turkmenistan’s president ordered them removed. Media watchers question whether he finds the dishes so ugly or the programs they receive.

Like in so many places, apartment block walls and roofs in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat are a maze of little satellite receiving dishes. As part of emergency conditions directed by the Pakistan government in early November importing and sales of satellite dishes was severely restricted. Malaysia authorities regularly confiscated the little ugly things. Saudi Arabia bans satellite dishes altogether, as does Iran.

It is not uncommon in the UK, Canada, Australia and the US for community associations to ban private individuals from setting up a satellite dish. Only rarely do human rights groups involve themselves in saving the satellite dish in Western countries.

Back in 2001 the European Commission (EC) effectively prohibited governments in the Member States from denying individuals free access to a satellite dish.  EC Internal Markets Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said on announcing the Communication, “Their use must therefore be free from any unjustified obstacle.” The Commission’s Communication related the information received via that ugly satellite dish to fundamental freedom of expression, enforceable under the European Convention on Human Rights. The EC Communication on satellite dishes did, however, allow that a ‘collective’ dish rather than a lot of individual dishes can be a  ‘solution’ to the esthetic problem.

“You go now and remove the dishes covering all those houses,” said President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to the Ashgabat mayor, recorded by State radio. “The dishes make the city look ugly. It's possible to get just one big antenna per house.”

And that is exactly what the Turkmen president wants to do; build big satellite dishes that everybody can use. Media watchers winced at the idea. The Turkmenistan government hasn’t exactly been pleased by citizens gathered around the home TV watching programs other than theirs.

Berdymukhamedov’s predecessor, the late Saparmurat Niyazov, banned satellite dishes in 2002 as ‘ugly’. He also said, at the time, that Russian channels, available via satellite, showed “a biased opinion of life in Turkmenistan which misrepresents reality." Niyazov  banned all foreign newspapers before he died.

China still bans private ownership of satellite dishes, referred to as ’woks’, though the rules are rarely enforced. Last October (2006) the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said it might forget the ban altogether since it’s virtually unenforceable. A month earlier (August 2006) the Beijing government sent teams throughout the city looking for the banned ugly things.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ended (December 15) the 6 week state of emergency, cutting off all private media. Shortly after the emergency order was announced, a ban on the sale of satellite dishes was included. Pakistanis, it appears, ran to the markets to buy a dish or two. Shopkeepers selling satellite dishes were arrested and the ugly dishes confiscated. Politicians, it seems, haven’t yet figured out that in this post-modern age media just keeps on getting through.- Michael Hedges December 15, 2007

Keywords:media in Turkmenistan,satellite TV