The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has removed Fergana news agency from its register of the banned websites and reinstated access to its website, Fergana news agency reported on October 8.
Recall, Russia’s state internet regulator Roskomnadzor on October 1 ordered internet service providers to block the website without warning. Neither the outlet nor their hosting provider were reportedly notified of the decision, and Roskomnadzor has not responded to the site’s request for information.
Under 2012 amendments to Russia’s law on information, information technologies, and protection of information, Roskomnadzor has the authority to block access to websites, but only after the warning to a provider and sufficient time to the site owner to correct the wrong.
Fergana news agency said they should have been warned and then given three days, according to the law, but the blocking came absolutely unexpectedly.
Reacting to the news that the website of the Fergana news agency was blocked by Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, on October 1, international organizations released statements on October 2 urging the Russian authorities to reinstate access to Fergana news website.
Thus, Ms. Gulnoza Said, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said, “Russian authorities’ decision to block Fergana without warning or explanation is yet another step in censorship of independent reporting and free flow of information.” “Access to Fergana must be reinstated, and Roskomnadzor should cease arbitrarily blocking websites,” she noted.
Amnesty International’s Russia Director Natalia Zviagina said, “The blocking of the Fergana news agency site is another arbitrary and cynical attack on freedom of expression in Russia. The Russian authorities amended the law in 2012 to enable arbitrary blocking of online media. In this case, they have gone far beyond their own spurious rules by blocking Fergana without providing any justification.”
“The authorities may have believed that they could silence Fergana without anybody noticing, but they are wrong. Independent media outlets such as Fergana are rare in Russia but, to the authorities’ annoyance, they have a dedicated audience in Russia and beyond. The cowardly decision to block Fergana must be overturned immediately,” Ms. Zviagina noted.
The Fergana News Agency is a certified Russian media outlet, serving the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. The Fergana News Agency is notable because it employs correspondents in the major cities of all the central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. The agency claims to be: "…one of the most popular resources dealing with the life of Central Asian countries of the former USSR."
According to Fergana, it is blocked in Turkmenistan and Uzbek authorities unblocked access to the website earlier this year.
Roskomnadzor is the Russian federal executive body responsible for censorship in media and telecommunications. Its areas include electronic media, mass communications, information technology and telecommunications; overseeing compliance with the law protecting the confidentiality of personal data being processed; and organizing the work of the radio-frequency service.
