DUSHANBE, March 9, 2012, Asia-Plus — In a statement released on March 9, Tajik media organizations, including Tajik Journalists’ Union (TJU), the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit), Media Alliance of Tajikistan (MAT) and the Foundation for Memory and Protection of the Rights of Journalists of Tajikistan (FMPJT), condemned the Tajik authorities’ order blocking social-networking website Facebook and four independent news websites.
Residents of Tajikistan have not had access to the social-networking website Facebook and the Russian-language sites centrasia.ru, tjk.news.com, zvezda.ru (Polyarnaya Zvezda) and maxala.org for already a week, which is violation of their constitutional right of access to information, the statement says.
Internet service providing companies say they received instructions to block access to Facebook and four independent news websites from the Communications Service under the Government of Tajikistan on March 2.
The Communications Service cited scheduled technical maintenance but “this argument is not convincing.”
ICT experts reportedly consider that blocking access to the websites is an inefficient and short-sighted step. “Such unfounded steps undermine international image of Tajikistan and are a direct threat to Tajik national information security.”
“We are convinced that nobody authorized the Communications Service to violate the citizens’ constitutional right of access to information and demand an immediate restoration of access to Facebook and other news websites,” the statement said.
