April 11, 2007 at 19:17Secrets of the East: why they covered access to a religious resource
In Uzbekistan, access to the Russian portal Portal-Credo.ru , which publishes religious news, is closed . This was reported by the Norwegian publication Forum18 , referring to a number of unsuccessful attempts to access this site from Tashkent. The fact that everything is not in order with access to the site from the territory of Uzbekistan can be understood from a comparison of the data on the Portal-Credo’s attendance in the republic and neighboring Central Asian countries. Within three weeks, only 13 visitors visited the site from Uzbekistan, while from Kazakhstan - 167 and from Tajikistan - 24 (despite the fact that the population of Tajikistan is four times less than the population of Uzbekistan).
Of course, the mere fact of the closure of access to one or another Internet resource in Central Asia is not a sensation. Everyone understands why one cannot get from Uzbekistan to the site “Muslims in Uzbekistan” , which tells about the oppression of Muslims in the republic. Does not cause issues even closing in the country access to leading the Central Asian Information Resources: "CentrAsia" , "the Ferghana.ru" , UzNews .
But for what Portal Credo suffered, it remains unclear. The site is not involved in politics and is generally far from what is happening in Uzbekistan. Of course, the site published short newsabout certain facts of pressure on religious figures in this republic, but in this case it is necessary to block access to all Russian-language information resources (and after the publication of this post, to Habrahabr).
Portal Credo’s editor-in-chief, Alexander Soldatov, does not know why his resource was on the banned list. Representatives of the largest Uzbek Internet providers Uzbektelecom and Sarkor are also unaware of the reasons for the ban. They noted that the National Security Service, which has the authority to filter all international Internet traffic, is blocking access to Internet resources, and no one knows how many sites it has banned. The security service itself declined to comment.
Of course, the mere fact of the closure of access to one or another Internet resource in Central Asia is not a sensation. Everyone understands why one cannot get from Uzbekistan to the site “Muslims in Uzbekistan” , which tells about the oppression of Muslims in the republic. Does not cause issues even closing in the country access to leading the Central Asian Information Resources: "CentrAsia" , "the Ferghana.ru" , UzNews .
But for what Portal Credo suffered, it remains unclear. The site is not involved in politics and is generally far from what is happening in Uzbekistan. Of course, the site published short newsabout certain facts of pressure on religious figures in this republic, but in this case it is necessary to block access to all Russian-language information resources (and after the publication of this post, to Habrahabr).
Portal Credo’s editor-in-chief, Alexander Soldatov, does not know why his resource was on the banned list. Representatives of the largest Uzbek Internet providers Uzbektelecom and Sarkor are also unaware of the reasons for the ban. They noted that the National Security Service, which has the authority to filter all international Internet traffic, is blocking access to Internet resources, and no one knows how many sites it has banned. The security service itself declined to comment.