OSCE media freedom representative welcomes restored access to fergananews.com in Kyrgyzstan

VIENNA, 12 April 2013 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, welcomed today the restored access to news website fergananews.com in Kyrgyzstan.

“By giving readers access to the site again, Kyrgyzstan has honoured OSCE media freedom commitments and its constitutional values prohibiting censorship. This is indeed a positive sign for Internet freedom in Kyrgyzstan,” Mijatović said, who had repeatedly raised the issue of the blockage with the authorities.

Fergananews.com was blocked by Internet service providers in Kyrgyzstan in February 2012 following a request from the State Communication Agency. The agency acted on a parliamentary resolution that called for the blockage on Kyrgyz territory, citing the site’s allegedly biased reporting on the June 2010 events in the country. On 10 April, major providers unblocked the site and restored access.

Mijatović called on all authorities in the OSCE region to refrain from using their regulatory and administrative leverage over providers to restrict access to information, and to introduce legislative guarantees to avoid similar blockages in the future.

“Websites may be legitimately blocked only when their content constitutes a clear criminal offence, which should be determined by a court of law in accordance with international standards,” she said.