October 6th, 2011
A
Radio Free Europe correspondent in
Turkmenistan has been sentenced to
five years in prison. Dovletmurad Yazguliyev was sentenced yesterday on charges of inciting his sister-in-law to attempt to commit suicide. Yazguliyev was detained on 27 September and his family were pressured to sign a statement backing up the charges against him. Yazguliyev and his colleagues believe that the arrest is an attempt to silence the journalist for his critical reports: he was one of the first journalists to break news of deadly arms storage explosions in the eastern town of Abadan on 7 July.
October 19th, 2010
Microsoft is
extending its program of giving free software licences to non-profit organisations. The initiative was first applied to Russia, after it was discovered that authorities were using software piracy inquiries as a method of suppressing independent media outlets and advocacy groups. The program will now include 500,000 NGOs in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, China, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Prior to the announcement NGOs could only obtain a free licence if they were aware of the program and followed the necessary procedure. According to
Microsoft’s official blog announcement, the unilateral licence will last until 2012.
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Tags: Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, censorship, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Microsoft, ngo, Russia, software, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam,
April 26th, 2010
The
circus has finally returned to Ashgabat after a nine-year long absence, following the legacy of previous President Niyazov, who banned the cinema, opera, ballet, lip-synching, gold teeth, long hair and beards for men, as well as
renaming all the days of the week and month after members of his family. On Friday, the first circus show was attended by current President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as well as 1,500 children. Berdymukhamedov has reversed nearly all the bans, except for ballet, which was originally outlawed as the
“scantily clad women offended Turkmen morality”.
February 22nd, 2008
Turkmenistan President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov fired 30 employees of the main state television channel after a cockroach crawled across the studio desk during the 9pm news programme, Vatan, the news website Kronika Turkmenistan reported on 21 February.
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