Joint Statement of the Media Organizations of Tajikistan

Dushanbe, 9 March 2012

The Tajik Union of Journalists (UJT), the Tajik National Association of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT), the Tajik Media Alliance (MAT), the Tajik Media Council and the Tajik Memorial Foundation of Journalists decisively condemn the actions of the Communication Service under the government of Tajikistan leading to limited access to the social network Facebook and other certain Internet resources covering the issues of public and political life.

Since last week, citizens of Tajikistan have had no access to Facebook and a number of other Internet resources, which is a violation of the constitutional right of access to information. Tajikistan’s Internet providers report that on 2 March they received an order from the government Communication Service to block access to Facebook and to the following four web sites: www.tjknews.com, www.maxala.org, www.centrasia.ru and www.zvezda.ru (the Internet portal of the Russian periodical Polyarnaya Zvezda). As an excuse for the blocked access, the communication authorities chose “prophylactic maintenance”, which does not sound very convincing.

Information and communication experts say that the blocking of social networks and web sites is seen as an inefficient and short-sighted action. The state communications agency used to perform similar actions. Such ungrounded and unjustified acts damage Tajikistan’s image; this is a direct threat to the national information security.

According to Tajikistan’s Information Security Concept, “…the striving of potential adversaries to infringe Tajikistan’s interests in the global information space along with attempts to push the country out of domestic and international markets, and aggravation of international rivalry in the area of ownership of information and communication technologies are the main sources of threat to the national information security”.

We are confident that nobody has authorized the Communication Service under the government to violate the right of citizens to information, and we demand to immediately lift the order blocking domestic access to Facebook and other web sites.

Akbarali Sattorov, UJT
Nuriddin Karshiboev, NANSMIT
Zinatullo Ismoilov, Tajik Media Council
Khurshed Niyozov, MAT
Mukhtor Bokizoda, Memorial Foundation of Journalists