DUSHANBE, July 5, 2013, Asia-Plus – K+ Channel released a statement on July 5 claiming that the Tajik authorities have been jamming its broadcast signal on the Hotbird satellite since July 2.
The statement is posted on the news website Respublika KZ.
The statement, in particular, notes that the signal has been especially strongly jammed when K+ Channel has broadcast programs in the Tajik language with participation of Tajik opposition journalist Dodojon Atovulloyev.
“From our point of view such actions cannot be conducted without direct instruction or tacit approval of the Tajik authorities. We suppose they use capacities of Tajik national TV and radio operator Teleradiokom to jam the signal,” the statement says.
It also notes that by jamming the broadcast signal on the Hotbird satellite they jam the signal of not only the separate channel but the entire transponder (package of channels), and therefore, interference coming from the territory of Tajikistan causes damage not only to K+ but also to dozens of other TV and radio channels of the Eurasian countries.
K+ Channel also draws attention of international community to this situation noting that it is contrary to international broadcasting convention and impedes spread of information.
We will recall that access to the regional independent television channel K+ was blocked in Tajikistan on May 28. Shortly before that, K+ has repeatedly broadcast a program in the Tajik language with participation of Tajik opposition journalist Dodojon Atovulloyev criticizing President Emomali Rahmon. A homemade video depicting President Rahmon dancing at his son’s wedding was shown during the program. Access to K+ was blocked three days after the video was aired. The wedding in question took place three years ago.
Some experts suggested that access K+ Channel had been blocked because of that program but specialists from the Tajik communications service agency asserted that it was impossible to block access to a satellite channel.
K+ Channel became available in Tajikistan again on June 5.
K+ is a satellite channel that broadcasts news from Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The programming, believed to be pro-opposition in some republics, is available via satellite, online on the channel’s official website, as well as on YouTube.
K+ has not been available in Kazakhstan since December 2012. A court in Almaty handed down a ruling on December 6, 2012 prohibiting the broadcast in Kazakhstan of any material produced by K+ or its affiliates.
