There are also papers published by political parties. It could be described as plurality of aligned papers though, since often the politically orientated print media are fairly politicised. Nonetheless, there are high-quality broadsheets from Moscow to Baku to Bishkek, as well as numerous business, special interest, youth, sports, etc. Importantly however, except for Russia and Ukraine, these papers are distributed mainly in the capital and the principal cities. Moreover, it was said before that the combined printrun of the daily newspapers is very low in proportion to the population.
TV is the primary source of information for the vast majority of the citizenry.
As said, all national television and radio channels are financed, run and transmitted by the governments. Besides the factors below, this is due to the fact that many independent TV channels broadcast few news or current affairs programmes, focusing instead on films, entertainment, soaps, etc. Only the more successful and professional ones can afford to produce their own news and information programmes, vital to balance the official information. T he visibility of private broadcasting varies per country and depends on several factors. 2 B esides the emergence of private television, the rise of the independent news-agencies is a promising development.