The Information and Mass Media Agency under the President Administration responded to the statement by OSCE Media Freedom Representative, Harlem Desir in which he called on the authorities in Uzbekistan to end the blocking of media outlets and urged to undertake reforms of the media laws and regulations.
In an official statement, Komil Allamjonov, said that the agency had studied the Representative’s statement and intends to “thoroughly study the unease of access to certain news websites.”
“The agency is open to dialogue with the OSCE Representative on any issues and is ready to cooperate to implement joint projects in the news sphere,” he added.
Komil Allamjonov added that as part of the multi-area reform efforts in Uzbekistan, the agency is taking “systemic measures to strengthen the legal framework for freedom of speech and media, developing the media and citizen journalism and to raise journalists’ status and the degree of openness of government bodies”.
The Tashkent Times would like to do its bit to help Mr. Komil Allamjonov to identify the news websites blocked in Uzbekistan. Here is the non-exhaustive list:
www.rferl.org
www.ozodlik.org
www.ferghana.ru
www.uzmetronom.com
www.dw.de
www.forbes.kz
www.centre1.com
www.hrw.org
www.ng.ru
www.uzxalqharakati.com
www.bbc.com
