Today, Uzbekistan is remaining one of the repressive countries in the region that maintains a tight grip on mass media. Despite it has all the nominal guarantees of the freedom of speech, the media is being systematically attacked by the government. The article 5 in the law of the Republic of Uzbekistan on mass media [ru] states that mass media in the country are free and can act freely according the laws of the country. In the same law, the article 7 states that there is no censorship in the country and “no one has a right to demand the preliminary approval of the publishing materials, and change or take them off from publication (broadcasting).” However, we witness de facto contradicting de jure in Uzbekistan.

The blogosphere of Uzbekistan today is discussing the action to fight with internet censorship in Uzbekistan. The open-ended action was organized by the Information Agency Fergana.ru, Uznews.net and a blog Civil Society in Uzbekistan. The organizers state that the ban on independent and unbiased information became total following the Andijon events in 2005, and today several hundreds of websites are made not accessible via state controlled internet providers. Blog “Civic Society in Uzbekistan” urges all blocked websites to join the action. “As part of the campaign,” they write, “websites that cannot be accessed in Uzbekistan are encouraged to post, on their main pages, an emblem stating they have been banned, fully or partially, in Uzbekistan” [ru].

BBC Uzbek Service cites the organizers stating that the open-ended action will last until the government of Uzbekistan takes positive steps in improving the state of media and abolishing the censorship in the country [uz].

A blog Though the Eyes of Uzbekistani writes that one of the reasons for them to join the action against censorship is that they are blocked in Uzbekistan, and the blog’s authors cannot directly update the blog.

Unfortunately, the blocking of websites and Information resources is continuing in Uzbekistan. Our blog is also blocked in the country. For us, authors, it is really difficult to update the blog in Uzbekistan. Our friends outside of Uzbekistan are helping in overcoming this problem, as today, even proxy servers are not of use, especially when it comes to posting different attachments and photographs.

I had a chance to interview one of the authors of the blog Though the Eyes of Uzbekistani about the action to fight internet censorship. He seems to be pessimistic about the goals of the action, as he believes that they are not going to change the situation a lot, if at all. “The action will fail, as the main target group – Uzbekistani population – does not have access to it. It will become another try to draw international community’s attention to the problems in Uzbekistan, and nothing more. However, we must try,” he says.

However there not many websites joined the action, the organizers are optimistic saying that it will attract more attention soon, as the action has just begun. The other popular blogs that are blocked in Uzbekistan are neweurasia (blocked in June 2006), Registan (blocked in March 2007), Global Voices Online, and opposition blogs Turonzamin and Yangidunyo.

Also posted on neweurasia.net

Uzbekistan’s mass media law article 5 about freedom of mass media tells: ”Mass media in Uzbek Republic are free… everyone has a right to perform in mass media, to express his or her opinion and persuasion openly if it does not contradict to the law… mass media are responsible for objectivity and authenticity of the spreaded information”

Article 7 of the same law is about inadmissibility of censorship: “Censorship in mass media in Uzbek Republic is not admissible”.

De jure, mass media in Uzbekistan are free of governmental control within the law. De facto, some blogs are blocked by government because of any negative and critical information concerning president and Uzbekistan generally.

Internet in Uzbekistan is provided by UzNet, governmental provider, to other Uzbek internet providers. One of the governmental censorship mechanisms is blocking blogs through Internet-café. Sometimes administrators of Internet-café schedule “suspicious” sites which contradict to the governmental plan to the black list. Thus not only local blogs could be blocked, but any “shady” foreign blogs too. Another way of blocking realizes by blocking through general server.

There are cases, when the government justifies its censorship activity by saying that it wants to protect young people from inauthentic information about the independent state.

Uzbek government prosecutes bloggers, who express their opinion about negative side of Uzbekistan, by several means:

• Sometimes bloggers summon to the police for brainwashing
• Bloggers could be fired or could have problems with searching a job under pretence of various circumstances.
• Bloggers are responsible for the posted information, because the Internet is equated with mass media. If the information is not desirable for the government, it could be evaluated as erroneous. In this case the government could institute administrative proceedings against blogger at first and then even criminal proceeding.

According to the source there were no trials against bloggers yet.

Now Uzbek bloggers have problems with renewal of their blogs. Sometimes in order to post information they send it by e-mail to their friends outside Uzbekistan and they publish it. This situation reduces democratic processes in the country. Not all bloggers have reliable friends outside the country and to make a request to post your new article every time is not comfortable. By the words of the source, now the main task is to teach Uzbek bloggers to renew their blocked blogs in such circumstances. The source calls for help of foreign specialists to find solution for Uzbek bloggers.

It has been reported that the Uzbek-language website Newsuz.com has been blocked in Uzbekistan. “After a series of critical publications on human rights issues, gas supply issues, and price growth, and also analytical publications on the recent elections, we began receiving letters with threats and demands to follow information posted on government sites. We did not do that and, as a result, out site was blocked,” Newsuz.Com editor-in-chief Aziz Nosirov said.

The Uzbek government has often denied the existence of Internet filtering: “We live in the era of computer technologies, and all statements that the Internet is somehow censored or anything are a height of naivete,” former Foreign minister Eljer Ganiyev once declared.

However, and according to the Open Net Initiative (ONI), Uzbekistan maintains the most extensive and pervasive filtering system among tested Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced on November 7 2006 that Uzbekistan is among the 13 countries that the NGO labels “Enemies of the Internet“.