Popular Tajik News Website Blocked In Russia, Barely Accesible In Tajikistan

Asia-Plus is Tajikistan’s most popular news website with content published in Tajik, Russian, and English. (screen shot)

DUSHANBE -- A popular news website in Tajikistan, Asia-Plus, has been blocked in Russia and is barely accessible in Tajikistan.

The website's editor Zebo Tojiboeva told RFE/RL on August 2 that Russia's media watchdog Roskomnadzor had blocked the site on July 26.

Tojiboeva said Roskomnadzor had sent an electronic message to Asia-Plus questioning a report last year about a young woman who committed suicide in Tajikistan's northern region of Sughd.

It said the report contained "elements of propaganda about suicide."

"After that letter from Roskomnadzor we removed the report from our website but the site had been blocked already... We think the blocking is linked to that letter. But other reasons are possible," Tojiboeva said.

Inside Tajikistan, access to the website was limited, according to RFE/RL correspondents in the Central Asian country.

Operating since April 1996, Asia-Plus is Tajikistan’s most popular news website with content published in Tajik, Russian, and English.