You're reading: Access to Facebook, Radio Liberty website blocked in Tajikistan

 The Tajik government's communications service ordered on Thursday that access to four websites, including Facebook and the website of the Tajik service of Radio Liberty, be blocked, representatives of Internet service providers told Interfax.

Some of the providers have already implemented the regulator’s instruction, which was sent via SMS-messages. Other companies are awaiting written copies of the service’s resolution.

“The communications service issued an instruction to block access to the facebook.com, ozodi.org, tjknews.com and toptj.com websites without offering any reasons behind this decision. We have obeyed it,” a spokesman for privately owned Internet provider Telecomm Technology told Interfax.

The tjknews.com website publishes articles that criticize the Tajik authorities’ policies, and the toptj.com website collects articles and remarks dealing with Tajikistan from all online news services and analytical websites irrespective of their attitude to the Tajik government.

Access to the Facebook social networking site was restricted in Tajikistan from November 26 to December 7, 2012, which drew criticism from the European Union and the United States. The restrictions were subsequently lifted. The Tajik authorities blocked access to the website of the Tajik service of Radio Liberty at the end of last year, but agreed to remove the ban after the U.S. Embassy in the country voiced its concern over this decision and called on Dushanbe to “respect the right to freedom of speech.”

Communications service director Beg Zukhurov has explained that access to Facebook was blocked at the “request of people” who accused Tajik users of this social networking website of insulting “respected citizens” of the republic.

Access to another 30 websites has been blocked in the republic for more than six months, including the websites of Russian news agency Novosti, the Rossiya 24 television station, lenta.ru, the Fergana news agency (fergananews.com), and other websites that publish reports criticizing the Tajik leadership.

However, Tajik Internet users have been actively sharing methods to bypass the authorities’ ban, with most of them knowing how to use proxy servers.

The next presidential election is due to take place in Tajikistan in November 2013.