Tajik web users cannot get access to the foreign web site

The OSCE media resource center in Dushanbe approached a local Internet providing company Compuworld asking to explain why access to the web site Fergana.ru is denied. The Compuworld managers said that the web site is blocked according to instructions issued almost two years ago by the Tajik Ministry of Communication, namely by its entity – the Communication Regulation Agency.

It should be noted that the official letter from the Agency was issued in October 2006. It contained the order addressed to all Tajik Internet providers to block access to the following web resources: www. «сharogiruz.ru», www. «arianstorm.com», www. «tajikistantimes.ru», www. «centrasia.ru» and www.«fergana.ru». The letter contained explanations that “the ideological contents of these web sites are targeted against the policies of the State in the information environment, and serve as propaganda and instigation of social, racial and religious conflicts”.

This order remained in force only one week, and was abolished by the authorities shortly after the release. However, Compuworld has blocked Fergana.ru again, referring to the same letter from the Communication Ministry.

Jamshed Mamajanov, who works for the OSCE media resource center says that access to the web site had been blocked shortly after he received an official accreditation as a correspondent of Fergana.ru in Tajikistan.

NANSMIT monitoring service