Most Central Asian countries have press systems controlled tightly by their governments and their proxies – political parties, members of the presidents’ family and friends, and financial-industrial groups. Those press systems, even that of Kyrgyzstan – the most democratic of the countries on a comparative scale – are rated as “not free” by the nongovernmental organization Freedom House (2015). The Reporters sans Frontières (2014) press freedom survey ranks the region’s two most repressitarian1 governments among the near180 countries: Uzbekistan (166th) and Turkmenistan (178th). Domestic and international press and human rights advocacy organizations frequently criticize all five regimes for individual and systemic rights violations. Overall, as one study observed, “the pattern of press controls in Central Asia remains disturbing. At no time since independence has any of these countries seriously pursued comprehensive liberalization of constraints or de facto recognition of the importance of free expression. Although several countries – most notably Kyrgyzstan – have undergone periods of liberalization, there has been no sustained improvement” (Freedman and Shafer, 2014). As for environmental coverage, Justin Burke, editor of EurAsiaNet, an international news organization that intensively reports on policy issues in Central Asia, described the environment as “one of the more underreported topics, and we feel a commitment to cover it wherever we can and whenever we can, whatever the country. There are certain areas where there are glaring needs: Water pollution and water usage is a vital issue. Mining and energy production and the consequences thereof is obviously something we follow.” He added, “There are some stories that local news can’t cover so much, especially when it comes to corruption” (Burke, 2014). Nt all news organizations share that same level of commitment to environmental stories. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), another Western news organization that reports on Central Asia, has reduced its environmental coverage in recent years because that issue hasn’t been a priority for its funders, its Central Asia editor, Saule Mukhametrakhimova, said in a 2015 interview with one of the authors.