Turkmenistan Blocking YouTube and Livejournal

Jillian C. York — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:33:41 -0500

This post is a translation from the original Russian article at Lenta.ru.

Turkmenistan blocked access to YouTube video services and service for bloggers, LiveJournal, says Ferghana.Ru news agency.

According to the agency, the decision adopted state company "Turkmen", which is the only provider in the country.

Authorities imposed other restrictions. In particular, as noted, the Ferghana.ru, many foreign companies in Turkmenistan have corporate networks, can not access them. In addition, many private users, sites which are located at a site overseas, access to these resources is difficult.

Recall that in 2000, when the rules of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, free access to Internet resources in the country was stopped. The main Internet users in these conditions were public entities.

After Niyazov's death, the new president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, has promised to provide citizens free access to the web. Subsequently, in Ashgabat even opened an Internet cafe.However, access to a number of foreign resources (especially electronic media) has been blocked for the visitors, while they themselves were guarded by military institutions and men in civilian clothes. "

In 2009, the international organization "Committee to Protect Journalists, including Turkmenistan to the list of worst countries for bloggers. Turkmenistan is also included in the list of "enemies of the Internet", compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

Internet cafes open in Turkmenistan

nart — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:20:57 -0500

Just days after the inauguration of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan saw the opening of its first Internet cafes. While the cafes are few in number and high in hourly cost, they appear to offer unfiltered and unmonitored public access to the Web -- an unprecedented development in the Central Asian country and one promised by Berdymukhamedov during his campaign for the presidency. It remains to be seen whether the new president will continue to make good on his promises, as Reporters Without Borders has urged, and further undo the restrictions on information and free expression maintained by late president Saparmurat Niyazov.

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