Mediastan

The bleak, mountainous terrain and quiet, lonely roads set the tone for this compelling venture into the heart of ‘the Stans’. The first stop is Asia Plus, a newspaper in Tajikistan. “If we were to talk too freely about our taboos, what kind of taboo would that be?” asks the Editor-in-Chief, Marat Mamadshoev, with a smile. “We’d rather get approval from our superior first…” he says nervously. “The Washington DC overlord of Asia Plus!” Given the go-ahead, the team pours over the material. Speaking over Skype, Assange warns, “Read all of it. If you go searching for particular things you will bring your own prejudice to the material.” But as the Wikileaks team move on to their next meeting, soon the call comes, “the problem is that there are many things in the cables that we cannot publish…because we will get into trouble”. At the offices of the Kazakh Telegraph Agency the team receive a more frosty reception. “Why have you come here? If an unskilled man gets access to this data it …