State and Public Media in Eurasia in 2026

State Media Monitor maps 60 active entries across twelve Eurasian jurisdictions in the 2026 cycle: Russia; the five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; the South Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia; and Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine in Far East Europe.

Fifty-eight of the 60 entries, or 96.7 per cent, belong to the non-independent family. Forty-nine are classified State-Controlled Media, six Captured Public or State Managed/Owned Media and three Captured Private Media. Only two entries, or 3.3 per cent, sit in the independent family: Moldova’s Teleradio-Moldova and Ukraine’s Suspilne. No independent-family entry is mapped in Russia, Central Asia or the South Caucasus.

The active roster fell from 69 entries in 2025 to 60 in 2026, a decline of approximately 13 per cent. The change comprised nine exits and no additions. Seven followed ownership or control reviews: five entries in Azerbaijan, Rambler&Co in Russia and Radio Grand in Uzbekistan. Diario Octubre was removed from the Russian mapping because it did not fit SMM’s scope, while Tajik Radio was consolidated into the broader Tajik State Television and Radio entry. None of the nine exits represented movement into the independent family.

The regional distribution

State-Controlled media account for more than four-fifths of the active Eurasian mapping. Of the 60 active entries in 2026, 49, or 81.7 per cent, are State-Controlled, meeting all three conditions of the State Media Matrix, ownership and governance, funding, and editorial control. A further six, or 10.0 per cent, are Captured Public or State Managed/Owned, and three, or 5.0 per cent, are Captured Private. The two independent-family entries comprise one classified Independent State-Funded (ISF) and one Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM).

The active Eurasian mapping stood at 65 entries in 2022, 65 in 2023, 64 in 2024, 69 in 2025 and 60 in 2026. The nine-entry decline in the latest cycle is substantial, approximately 13 per cent, but it did not enlarge the independent family. The number of independent-family entries remained two.

Individual classifications have changed as new ownership, funding and governance evidence became available. The more durable finding is that such revisions have not produced broader independent public-service media: 58 of the 60 active entries remain State-Controlled, Captured Public or Captured Private, and no entry moved into the independent family during the 2026 cycle.

Historical totals show the active mapping as recorded in each annual cycle. They are not retrospectively restated for later removals, mergers or scope revisions.

The four subregions

The region divides into four blocs, three of which are entirely non-independent.

Russia has the largest single-country roster, with 18 mapped entries: 12 State-Controlled, three Captured Public and three Captured Private. The three Captured Public entries combine public, municipal or state-linked control with predominantly commercial financing, while the Captured Private entries have private ownership structures combined with documented state-linked editorial control. None of Russia’s 18 entries sits in the independent family.

Central Asia, comprising Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, accounts for 20 entries across five countries, of which 18 are State-Controlled and two, both in Uzbekistan, are Captured Public. There is no independent-family entry anywhere in the subregion. Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are mapped as uniformly State-Controlled; Kazakhstan is likewise entirely State-Controlled in the current mapping; and Uzbekistan, where official reform rhetoric has been particularly visible, nonetheless remains fully within the non-independent family, its five entries comprising three State-Controlled and two Captured Public, a distribution that reflects the limits rather than the achievement of that reform.

The South Caucasus, with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, accounts for ten entries, and in 2026 every one of them is State-Controlled: three in Armenia, five in Azerbaijan and two in Georgia. This is the subregion where the evidentiary story is most consequential. Azerbaijan’s mapped set fell to five entries after State Media Monitor removed five further outlets (Space TV, ATV, SOCAR Media, ARB Media Group and Real TV) from the database. The reason was not any improvement in their independence or any reduction in state influence. It was the application of a stricter evidentiary standard to ownership and control amid persistent corporate opacity: for four of the five, licensed operators or historically reported founders could be identified, but no authoritative, current record of shareholders or beneficial owners could be obtained; for SOCAR Media, the state’s founding role is documented but continuing institutional control over its governing body could not be established to standard. Evidence of alignment with government positions remains for all five. The resulting mapped set represents the verifiable minimum extent of state-controlled media in Azerbaijan, not the full extent of state influence over the sector. It is a smaller number that describes a more opaque reality, not a freer one.

Far East Europe, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, is the only subregion containing any independent-family media, and the contrast within it is stark. Belarus’s six mapped entries are all classified State-Controlled, following the sustained repression that began after 2020. Moldova and Ukraine remain the region’s only counter-examples, although their arrangements remain exposed to political and security pressure. Moldova’s Teleradio-Moldova moved from Independent State-Funded and State-Managed to Independent State-Funded following the 2025 governance reform that removed Parliament from the direct appointment of its Supervisory Council. It remains predominantly state-funded. Moldpres moved from State-Controlled to Captured Public in the 2026 cycle because the available evidence did not establish predominant direct state financing; this was a reclassification within the non-independent family. Ukraine’s Suspilne remains classified Independent State-Funded and State-Managed. TRM and Suspilne are the only independent-family entries in the active Eurasian mapping, two entries, in two countries, at the western margin of the region.

What changed in the 2026 cycle

Beyond the movement of the mapped roster, several developments define the 2026 Eurasian cycle.

The contraction in Azerbaijan is the year’s most consequential mapping change, and its importance lies precisely in what it does not mean. The removal of five outlets from the mapping coincided with an intensifying campaign against the remaining independent journalism in the country. During the review period the Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced nine defendants in the Toplum TV case, journalists, media workers, civil-society activists and opposition figures, to terms totalling 120 years, 11 months and 28 days, conventionally rounded to 121 years. In April 2026 the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of six Abzas Media journalists and RFE/RL journalist Farid Mehralizada, whose sentences total 59.5 years. Azerbaijan fell four places to 171st of 180 countries in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 23.95, down 1.52 points. The removals in our database are not evidence that the five outlets became independent or that state influence diminished; they mean that State Media Monitor could no longer establish the ownership or governance condition to its required evidentiary standard. The lesson generalises across the region: where corporate ownership is opaque, a shrinking count of verifiable state-linked outlets can coexist with extensive or tightening state influence.

Russia’s mapped sector continued to reflect the consolidation of the war period, in which nominally independent or commercial outlets have been progressively absorbed into, or aligned with, state-directed structures, and in which the practical distinction between state ownership and state capture has narrowed. The Matrix classifies six Russian entries in captured categories rather than as State-Controlled: three as Captured Public and three as Captured Private. None of the 18 Russian entries sits in the independent family. During the cycle Rambler&Co was removed from the Russian mapping because the available evidence did not establish its current ownership and control sufficiently to sustain its classification.

In Central Asia, the reform rhetoric most visible in Uzbekistan and, intermittently, Kazakhstan has not translated into any independent-family classification. The subregion remains a study in the difference between liberalising presentation and unchanged structure: presentational openness, new outlets and modernised branding coexist with governance and funding arrangements that keep the entire mapped sector within the non-independent family.

Moldova and Ukraine remain the only countries in the region with independent-family entries. In each, that position depends on a single public broadcaster whose governance arrangements remain exposed to political and security pressure. Together, Teleradio-Moldova and Suspilne demonstrate that an alternative public-media model exists in Eurasia, but also how exceptionally narrow its presence remains.

Outlook

The active mapping contracted by nine entries in 2026, but none of those exits enlarged the independent family. Of the 60 entries still mapped, 58, or 96.7 per cent, remain in the non-independent family, and 49, or 81.7 per cent, are classified State-Controlled.

The contraction must therefore be interpreted cautiously. In Azerbaijan, five removals followed an inability to verify current ownership or governing control amid persistent corporate opacity. Those removals do not demonstrate greater independence; they define the boundary of what State Media Monitor can establish to its evidentiary standard. In Azerbaijan, and in comparable cases where ownership or continuing control cannot be verified, the active mapping should be understood as a verified minimum rather than a complete measure of state influence.

Moldova’s Teleradio-Moldova and Ukraine’s Suspilne remain the only independent-family entries in the active Eurasian mapping. Until similarly protected governance, appointment and financing structures appear elsewhere, they will remain exceptions within an overwhelmingly state-controlled and state-aligned regional system.

Methodology note

The State Media Matrix assesses three dimensions: ownership and governance, funding, and editorial control. State-Controlled media meet all three state-control conditions. Captured Public or State Managed/Owned describes publicly owned or state-managed entries whose editorial independence is compromised but where the full State-Controlled combination is not established, frequently because predominant state funding cannot be demonstrated. Captured Private describes privately owned media whose editorial agendas are captured through sustained political, state or ruling-party relationships. The independent categories describe entries where editorial autonomy is maintained despite different forms of public ownership, management or financing.

Reclassification and removal follow the evidence available in each cycle. New accounts, appointment records, corporate filings or governance documents can change an entry’s category, or, where ownership or continuing control can no longer be authoritatively established, lead to its removal, without any corresponding change in editorial behaviour.

Historical totals show the active mapping as recorded in each annual cycle and are not retrospectively restated for later removals, mergers or scope revisions.