Name: Assistant Professor Eric Freedman

Department: Journalism

Title of research project: After the Tulip Revolution, Press Freedoms, Constraints and Competition in Kyrgyzstan

Date of research: Freedman has been researching journalism-related topics involving Central Asia since 2002 after he returned from teaching in Uzbekistan.

Basics of the project: Freedman is looking at how the press environment has changed in Kyrgyzstan after the Tulip Revolution in March 2005, during which the president of the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan was overthrown.

Freedman will be studying press coverage and press freedom as some of the topics for the project.

Since the Tulip Revolution, the government in Kyrgyzstan has become more democratic, he said. He also stressed that after the ruler was ousted, competition in the media and rights of journalists have been affected.

"The (information) in Kyrgyzstan will come from my going there for a few weeks and interviewing media professionals, media experts and journalists," he said.

Social impact of research: Hopefully, people will begin to consider three major effects his research could have on society, Freedman said.

"I hope they have a better appreciation of the comparatively broad rights that they have as citizens or as journalists," Freedman said. "The second is that I hope that journalists here have a better sense of the obstacles, challenges and threats that their counterparts face elsewhere in the world.

"I hope that the results may show what can happen when the authoritarian regime is removed or eliminated from a country," Freedman said.

Grants and funding: Freedman has received a grant from the International Research & Exchanges Board, or IREX, which is a nongovernment-affiliated organization that deals with education and independent media.