Uzbekistan
Organisation:
Domain name : .uz
Population : 27,780,059
Internet users : 2,400,000
Average price of an hour’s connection in a cybercafé : not available
Average monthly salary : about 50 euros
Number of private access providers : 447
Number of imprisoned bloggers : 0
Until 2006, more citizens of Uzbekistan had Internet access than had mobile phones. This is how the political opposition gets out its messages, something that President Islam Karimov wants to prevent. Islam Karimov, who was re-elected head of state on 23 December 2007, exercises very tight control over the Internet. Websites do not have to register with the authorities, but everything is centralised and the government blocks access to most independent sites that criticise its policies. State network, UzPak, has been the only one in the country since 2005 and all access providers have to connect via this network. However, a few of the 447 private companies that deal in access are intermittently connected to the Russian network. However, for 17 years, the president has ceaselessly expressed his wish to see citizens expressing themselves freely. The network has therefore developed and the number of users never ceases to grow. But diversity of opinion is not to be expected. Russian blog platform Livejournal was blocked in February 2009 by Uzbek access providers because it posted photos of a local businessman. But LiveJournal is one of Uzbekistan’s most popular sites and the access providers put an end to this censorship once the news appeared on the Russian Web, which boasts 38 million Internet users. Opposition gradually eliminated In 2005, the journalist and nephew to the president, Djamshid Karimov, was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital after posting a series of articles on the website of the independent Uzbek news agency Ferghana.ru focusing on corruption of the local administration and the state of the peasantry in the Jizzak region. His admission took place, in October 2006, even though the doctors admitted that he was “a well-balanced man in good health, intelligent and educated”. The same year, the editor of an independent news website Tribune-uz.info decided to suspend its online work after coming under pressure. Since 2005, the stance of the foreign ministry has however been clear: “Uzbekistan does not have the capacity or the technical knowledge to block access to the Internet”. However some websites figure on the list of “sources of information that provide destructive news” and threatening “security of information”, of which the government acknowledges the existence but keeps secret. It generally concerns independent news websites and those which defend human rights. The website registan.net, which deals with political questions in central Asia, was blocked without any official reason being given, on 15 March 2007. In July 2006, the websites Neweurasia.net and Uzmetronom.org were also made inaccessible by the government. Since the start of 2008, the website uzngo.info, which is not however seen by the authorities as an opposition site was also blocked. Its editor, Alexey Dobryin, described it as “provocation on the part of the authorities”. “The blocking of the site came just after the victory of Islam Karimov although he has not ceased to claim for 17 years that the people want to be part of a real civil society. It is highly regrettable that the Communications and Information Agency of Uzbekistan, which a number of talented and competent people work for, is much like George Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’”, he said. The site was one of the most reliable sources of information about civil society. The law on media freedom, adopted in 2003, imposes a series of restrictions on the circulation of news online. Article 4 lays down that “the freedom to inform the public can be limited in the name of the protection (...) of the community’s moral values, national security and the country’s spiritual, cultural and scientific potential”. The vague formulation of these principles leaves wide scope for interpretation and for extensive and abusive censorship. The same is true of other articles that invoke the “preservation of cultural and historic values” or “social stability”. An amendment was made to the law on 15 January 2007, defining websites as media, giving the government even greater control over this space. More information :
http://uzbekistan.neweurasia.net : collaborative website on Uzbekistan. The website Neweurasia is a platform for central Asian blogs (English, Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, and Kirghiz).
http://ferghana.ru : independent news agency for countries of central Asia (Russian and English).
http://www.centrasia.ru : news website on central Asia (Russian).
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24840 : “Islam Karimov everywhere, elections nowhere!” Reporters Without Borders report on media coverage of the 2007 presidential campaign.
http://www.eurasianet.org : news website Eurasianet.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarchive/country/uzb ekistan.html : Uzbeck service of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty.
http://eng.bir.uz/news : National news agency (Russian, Uzbek, English).
Population : 27,780,059
Internet users : 2,400,000
Average price of an hour’s connection in a cybercafé : not available
Average monthly salary : about 50 euros
Number of private access providers : 447
Number of imprisoned bloggers : 0
Until 2006, more citizens of Uzbekistan had Internet access than had mobile phones. This is how the political opposition gets out its messages, something that President Islam Karimov wants to prevent. Islam Karimov, who was re-elected head of state on 23 December 2007, exercises very tight control over the Internet. Websites do not have to register with the authorities, but everything is centralised and the government blocks access to most independent sites that criticise its policies. State network, UzPak, has been the only one in the country since 2005 and all access providers have to connect via this network. However, a few of the 447 private companies that deal in access are intermittently connected to the Russian network. However, for 17 years, the president has ceaselessly expressed his wish to see citizens expressing themselves freely. The network has therefore developed and the number of users never ceases to grow. But diversity of opinion is not to be expected. Russian blog platform Livejournal was blocked in February 2009 by Uzbek access providers because it posted photos of a local businessman. But LiveJournal is one of Uzbekistan’s most popular sites and the access providers put an end to this censorship once the news appeared on the Russian Web, which boasts 38 million Internet users. Opposition gradually eliminated In 2005, the journalist and nephew to the president, Djamshid Karimov, was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital after posting a series of articles on the website of the independent Uzbek news agency Ferghana.ru focusing on corruption of the local administration and the state of the peasantry in the Jizzak region. His admission took place, in October 2006, even though the doctors admitted that he was “a well-balanced man in good health, intelligent and educated”. The same year, the editor of an independent news website Tribune-uz.info decided to suspend its online work after coming under pressure. Since 2005, the stance of the foreign ministry has however been clear: “Uzbekistan does not have the capacity or the technical knowledge to block access to the Internet”. However some websites figure on the list of “sources of information that provide destructive news” and threatening “security of information”, of which the government acknowledges the existence but keeps secret. It generally concerns independent news websites and those which defend human rights. The website registan.net, which deals with political questions in central Asia, was blocked without any official reason being given, on 15 March 2007. In July 2006, the websites Neweurasia.net and Uzmetronom.org were also made inaccessible by the government. Since the start of 2008, the website uzngo.info, which is not however seen by the authorities as an opposition site was also blocked. Its editor, Alexey Dobryin, described it as “provocation on the part of the authorities”. “The blocking of the site came just after the victory of Islam Karimov although he has not ceased to claim for 17 years that the people want to be part of a real civil society. It is highly regrettable that the Communications and Information Agency of Uzbekistan, which a number of talented and competent people work for, is much like George Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’”, he said. The site was one of the most reliable sources of information about civil society. The law on media freedom, adopted in 2003, imposes a series of restrictions on the circulation of news online. Article 4 lays down that “the freedom to inform the public can be limited in the name of the protection (...) of the community’s moral values, national security and the country’s spiritual, cultural and scientific potential”. The vague formulation of these principles leaves wide scope for interpretation and for extensive and abusive censorship. The same is true of other articles that invoke the “preservation of cultural and historic values” or “social stability”. An amendment was made to the law on 15 January 2007, defining websites as media, giving the government even greater control over this space. More information :
http://uzbekistan.neweurasia.net : collaborative website on Uzbekistan. The website Neweurasia is a platform for central Asian blogs (English, Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, and Kirghiz).
http://ferghana.ru : independent news agency for countries of central Asia (Russian and English).
http://www.centrasia.ru : news website on central Asia (Russian).
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24840 : “Islam Karimov everywhere, elections nowhere!” Reporters Without Borders report on media coverage of the 2007 presidential campaign.
http://www.eurasianet.org : news website Eurasianet.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarchive/country/uzb ekistan.html : Uzbeck service of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty.
http://eng.bir.uz/news : National news agency (Russian, Uzbek, English).
Published on
Updated on
20.01.2016
Uzbekistan
