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Turkmenistan confiscating satellite dishes
Nov 21, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) --
?- Ashgabat authorities are continuing to dismantle private satellite dishes in densely populated neighborhoods. In place of the dismantled equipment, their owners are "offered" a chance to sign up for cable television with a fixed choice of channels.
Along with that, authorities are introducing payments for setting up and running cable networks. According to BBC Monitoring, which carried out the report, citizens are alarmed that the set of channels can be changed arbitrarily by authorities, and that authorities also have the ability to turn off broadcasting in practically all densely-populated districts of Ashgabat at once, and in future, the ability to do this in the entire city.
The satellite dish dismantling campaign was triggered by the Turkmen president's remark at the beginning of this year that "satellite dishes make the city look ugly". Rights activists believe the authorities' actions are aimed at suppressing human rights, and in particular, at denying the right for free access to information, since Turkmenistan's authorities created a special commission for censorship.
The commission is tasked with assessing "the artistic value of creative work", and has the authority to ban works of literature, the staging of plays, the making of films, and also the presentation of any film in cinemas and on television. Thus, authorities have restricted freedom of creativity, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression, rights activists believe.
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