DUSHANBE, October 6, 2014, Asia-Plus – Hundreds of websites have reportedly been blocked in Tajikistan.
In the evening of October 4, access to Facebook, Vkontakte, Ozodaqon’s Russian Service, CA-News was blocked.
The state communications service agency’s deputy chief, Rafiqjon Shokirov, refused to comment on lack of access to a number of websites and Internet in Sughd province but he said in an interview with Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service that the agency “has not given any orders to block any sites.”
“The reports about alleged blocking of websites, including Facebook, do not correspondent to reality. October 5 was a day off in Tajikistan and nobody had the right to block websites,” Shokirov told RFE/RL in an interview.
As far as Facebook is concerned, Mr. Shokirov was partially right, because access to Facebook was unblocked the following day while the remaining websites are still blocked.
Meanwhile, representatives of a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) say they received letters from the communications service agency on October 4 asking them to block access to nearly three hundred websites. Representatives of some other ISPs say they did not received official letters but they received phone calls from the agency asking them to block access to some two hundred websites.
Asomuddin Atoyev, the chairman of Tajikistan”s Association of Internet Service Providers, says he does not have a proof that access to websites was ordered by the communications service agency. “But judging by unprofessional approach, one can guess that the communications service agency is behind this order,” Atoyev said.
According to him, blocking of websites may be linked to the opposition Group 24’s calls on social networks for a protest in downtown Dushanbe on October 10.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on October 6 that Internet users in Tajikistan say hundreds of websites, including Facebook and YouTube, have been inaccessible in the country since October 5. Asomuddin Atoyev told RFE/RL on October 6 that at least 200 websites, including popular Russian social networks, remain inaccessible.
Tajik authorities have been accused of blocking popular websites several times in the past two years.
