The end of May 1992. The very height of the military aggression of Georgia against South Ossetia. The mass exodus of people tired of terror from settlements bordering with Georgia, burned villages (in some cases with people), brutal murders, torture, Zar's execution.
Bloody battles for the heights above the capital, Tskhinval. The city throughout the spring was subjected to shelling. Now it remains to be amazed at the courage of the people who laid the foundations of the state in such conditions, proclaimed independence, created the institutions of statehood. Amazed at their faith in the future of Ossetia, the people.
The armed aggression of Georgia was accompanied by an information war, unprecedented in cynicism, according to the precepts of the notorious Goebbels. And if, under Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the truth about the events in South Ossetia occasionally broke through in the Russian and European media, then the coming to power as a result of the armed upheaval of the “democrat,” the favorite of the West and the liberal Russian public, Shevardnadze, changed the situation. The ring of information blockade was closed, and the lie took monstrous forms.
These are the “objective prerequisites” of the creation on May 28, 1992 of the Ministry of Information, Press, Publishing and Book Trade of the Republic of South Ossetia, later renamed the State Committee on Information and Press of the RSO. The first Minister of Information was Stanislav Kochiev.
The newly created Ministry united the offices of the newspaper "Soveton Iryston", a magazine "Fidiuag", radio committee "Iryston" book publishing house, printing house, newspaper and magazine publishing house and the structure of the book trade.
The material and technical base of the Ministry - telephone, pens, paper, typewriter. Cameras and those were scarce, like the video cameras that were purchased later.
The information department included Batradz Kharebov, Vladimir Alborov, Zalina Gagloeva, Konstantin Alborov, Vasily Gagloev, Ilya Bestaev. These people were waging an unequal information war, collected material under shelling, sometimes at risk to life, informed the population, sent information to international agencies, primarily Russian, received journalists, were working with them.
A little later they were joined by Tatyana Dzudtsova, Alexey Margiev, Tamaz Ostaev, Alexander Radul, Uliana Gabieva, Rimma Bekoeva, Yuri Sanakoev, Anatoly Dzhidzhoyev, Inga Kochieva, Ireya Alborova, Svetlana Tedeeva, Fenya Tedeeva, Philip Gazzaev.
From 1991 to 1992, the Ministry received 2500 correspondents from 54 countries of the world, Russia, Canada, Australia, Japan, America, England and others.
Great help was rendered by North Ossetian journalists Vladimir Gutnov, Alan Bugulov, Kazbek Baskayev, Oleg Doev. Sergey and Irina Tabolov helped to break through the blockade on the Russian television channels.
Then the archive began to be formed. It is difficult to overestimate the hard work of Alexei Margiev, thanks to whom those tragic pages of our history were recorded.
As the new media appeared, the editorial staff of the newspaper “South Ossetia”, “Youth of Ossetia” (the current “Republic”) and the state television later joined the committee. The state news agency "Res" was created, headed by Batradz Kharebov.
The newspaper and magazine publishing house was transformed into the Printing House, and the printing house became a printing association.
At different periods, the State Committee was headed by Stanislav Kochiev, Batradz Kharebov, Kosta Dzugayev, Madina Ostaeva, Irina Gagloeva, Georgiy Kabisov, Dmitry Ivako, Maya Kharebova, Inal Tibilov, Vyacheslav Gobozov, Alan Tibilov and Maria Kotaeva.
