The 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released by the U.S. Department of State on March 11, in particular, notes that there were sporadic government restrictions on access to internet websites, such as Facebook, YouTube, Google, Google services, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Asia-Plus although some of the restrictions were lifted during the year.
The report says independent and opposition news agencies and websites located outside the country have been blocked by the government for several years.
According to the report, the communications service agency routinely denied involvement in blocking these sites, but the government admitted to periodically implementing a law that allows interruption of internet content and telecommunications “in the interest of national security.”
The report notes that Tajikistan remains an authoritarian state and he government has historically obstructed political pluralism.
Significant human rights issues reportedly included unlawful or arbitrary killings by prison authorities, forced disappearance by the government in collusion with foreign governments, torture and abuse of detainees by security forces, arbitrary detention. harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, significant problems with the independence of the judiciary, censorship, blocking of internet sites, and so forth.
“There were very few prosecutions of government officials for human rights abuses. Officials in the security services and elsewhere in the government acted with impunity,” the report says.
