130 websites blocked in Tajikistan

Dushanbe, Dec 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Over 130 websites have been blocked in Tajikistan in connection with “technical repair work”, the country’s telecom agency said.

Many of the sites listed were inaccessible within Tajikistan till Saturday.

Most of the sites targeted host music and video content, including topvideo.tj – dubbed Tajikistan’s answer to YouTube.

Popular social networking service Vkontakte, similar to Facebook, and Odnoklassniki, similar to Friends Reunited, were also on the list.

Access to sites popular with Tajik bloggers, and some publishing pro-opposition content, or run by Tajiks abroad was also blocked.

In November, Beg Zukhurov, the head of the country’s communications agency, issued an instruction that internet providers and mobile operators in the country block access to Facebook, “because of slander of the government of the country and its leaders”.

This prompted concern among the international community, including the OSCE and the EU. On Dec 4, access to Facebook was restored.

—IANS/RIA Novosti

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IANS 2012-12-23 07:08:04