Internet Under Surveillance 2004 - Kyrgyzstan
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 2004 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, Internet Under Surveillance 2004 - Kyrgyzstan, 2004, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/46e6918dc.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
- Population: 5,067,000
- Internet users: 152,000 (2002)
- Average charge for 20 hours of connection: 12 euros
- DAI*: 0.32
- Situation**: middling
The Internet is less censored than in other central Asian countries but its growth is hampered by the monopoly held by the state telecommunications firm Kyrgyztelecom, which is deeply in debt to the World Bank and seeking to return to profitability.
Kyrgyztelecom is in dispute with the country's ISPs and the cybercafés association over the cost of Internet access and also the use of the Internet to make cheap phone calls (VOIP), which is very popular for calling abroad. The firm is trying to stop this practice, which deprives it of revenue, and has blocked ISP access in cybercafés that offer the service.
Websites blocked
Access to www.gazeta.to.kg, run by independent journalist Leonid Rempel, has been blocked from inside the country, probably by government order. Customers get an error message saying they "do not have permission" to connect to the ISP. The website of the opposition party Ar-Namys (www.ar-namys.org) is also blocked from time to time.
Opposition websites hacked into
www.kyrgyz.us was the target of hackers on 8 February 2004, making it inaccessible for two days. The site hosts many online publications, including that of the opposition party Ar-Namys (www.ar-namys.org), newspapers such as Agym (www.aalam.gazeta.kg) and Litsa (www.litsa.gazeta.kg) and the NGO the Democracy Development Fund (www.ddf.org.kg). As part of the attack, Internet users on the Ar-Namys mailing list also received a e-mail from its site containing a virus.
Website convicted for "insulting" a minister
A court in Bishkek confirmed on 28 April 2003 the conviction of the newspaper Obshestvennyi Reiting for posting on its website www.pr.kg two months earlier "insulting" and "accusatory" letters to foreign minister Askar Aitmatov and two Kyrgyz diplomats. The paper was ordered to pay damages of 50,000 soms (1,o00 euros) to the minister and 25,000 soms (500 euros) each to the diplomats, large sums in a country where the average journalist's salary is only 30-40 euros a month.
Journalists' Internet centre ransacked
A media resource centre in Osh, set up by the Swiss NGO CIMERA and backed by IREX and the Open Society Institute, was ransacked by two hooded men on 4 February 2004. The centre provides Internet and e-mail access for about 250 journalists. All the centre's 15 computers were taken away by the attackers. A security guard, who was badly beaten up, said they made verbal threats to some journalists who regularly used the Internet facilities.
Links
- News sites - www.akipress.kg www.gazeta.to.kg (in Russian) www.azattyk.org (in Kyrgyz) www.pr.kg(in Russian) www.centrasia.org
* The DAI (Digital Access Index) has been devised by the International Telecommunications Union to measure the access of a country's inhabitants to information and communication technology. It ranges from 0 (none at all) to 1 (complete access).
** Assessment of the situation in each country (good, middling, difficult, serious) is based on murders, imprisonment or harassment of cyber-dissidents or journalists, censorship of news sites, existence of independent news sites, existence of independent ISPs and deliberately high connection charges.
