Free media or one more “show” to West?
Media and Internet, Uzbekistan6 Comments
[inspic=32,left,,thumb] Yesterday, to my great surprise and pleasure, I found out that blogs on the platform Blogspot.com are now accessible to internet users in Uzbekistan. Before, the platform was shut down due to the Uzbek government’s assiduous attempts to control the internet, especially blogs, as blogs are commonly used by dissidents and opposition to criticize the current regime in the country.
However, there are still some problems. One can open and read blogs on Blogspot, but its home base, where one can easily (in three steps) create a blog, is still shut down. It seems to me that Uzbek censors are playing a game “watch, but don’t touch.� But still, if it is not a show for some western delegation, which is currently visiting Uzbekistan with serious mission, opening access to the blogs on Blogspot is a huge step towards the freedom of speech.
To this day, only Livejournal blog platform was accessible and most active in the Uzbek blogosphere. The reason for accessibility, I guess, is that it is very rare when a livejournal blog discusses about politics of Uzbeksitan. The Uzbek livejournals are mostly devoted to more social or personal affairs.
WordPress is still shut down. It is, of course, bad, but I think, it is still a good indicator for Neweurasian blogs that they discuss the real problems that government has been neglecting in state controlled mass media.
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