DUSHANBE, November 26, 2012, Asia-Plus -- Several Tajik Internet-providers have blocked access to Facebook, a social network service, following verbal order from the communications service agency.

Top managers of the communications service agency are still not available for commenting on the matter.

An official source at one of Internet-providers in Dushanbe told Asia-Plus they have blocked access to Facebook following verbal order received from the communications service agency Sunday evening.

This year, access to Facebook has been blocked in Tajikistan for the second time.  We will recall that Tajik authorities blocked access to Facebook in early March this year.

The kerfuffle over Facebook began on March 2, when, apparently reacting to an article severely criticizing Tajik President, Emomali Rahmon, authorities blocked the site where it originally appeared, Zvezda.ru, and three others, along with Facebook.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized the “worrying development” and urged Dushanbe to restore access to the sites.  “Despite occasional blocking of certain websites in Tajikistan, Internet has remained largely free,” the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, Dunja Mijatovic, said.  Freedom House also condemns Tajikistan’s state-run communications agency for ordering internet service providers to block access to Facebook and at least three Russian-language websites after the sites published an article critical of President Emomali Rahmon entitled “Tajikistan on the Eve of a Revolution.”

The government and the communications service agency both refused to comment on the matter.  Tajik authorities lifted their weeklong ban on the social networking site Facebook on March 10.