Tajikistan blocks access to YouTube
DUSHANBE. May 25 (Interfax) - Tajikistan's government has blocked access to video sharing website YouTube, where footage appeared last week showing scenes from the pompous wedding of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon's son, Tajik Internet providers told Interfax.
"We have received an order from the Communications Service and we had to close access to YouTube," said the chief executive of one of the providers.
"The administrators of the Communications Service refuse to respond to our requests for disclosing the reason for shutting access to YouTube," said Asomiddin Atoyev, head of the Tajikistan Association of Internet Providers.
Atoyev said that, on orders from the Communications Service, some of the country's providers had also blocked access to Toptj.com, an aggregator of news and analytical content about Tajikistan from various news sites, including those critical of the Tajik government.
A week ago, Central Asian opposition television channel K+ posted a program on YouTube that was presented by Dodozhon Atovulloyev, a Tajik opposition journalist living outside Tajikistan. The program showed scenes from the wedding of Rahmon's son, Rustam Emomali. Atovulloyev criticized the opulence of the wedding.
For the past two years, the Communications Service has time and again been closing access to various websites that posted content angering the Tajik government. Facebook and some Russian news portals have suffered the fate at various times. The Communications Service never comments on its bans.
However, Internet users eagerly share ways of breaking the locks, and the blocked sites immediately become some of the most popular in Tajikistan.