OSCE analyzes Internet censorship in Georgia and Kazakhstan

The OSCE is sounding the alarm about the ever-increasing curbs on free speech on the Internet. The fact is that relatively backward countries, which previously did not pay attention to the Internet, are now beginning to carry out repression on the web. As a result, the number of “network censors” has already exceeded 20 countries. These are the states where the state "network police", special "brigade men" operate , where the political opposition or the rights of minorities are infringed on the Internet.

Examples of Internet censorship in two countries, Kazakhstan and Georgia, are discussed in detail in the 231-page governing the Internet report, although the situation in China, Iran, Belarus and a number of other states is no less deplorable.

For example, in Kazakhstan, state censorship on the Internet "has the character of a Soviet-type spy system" when any dissident, whether an individual or an organization, can be recognized as a threat to the state structure - and measures will be taken against it. In particular, local authorities were extremely aggressive in dealing with an English comedian who was making a film about Kazakh life - even his website Borat.kz was closed. State authorities also block other sites, so that they become inaccessible from the territory of the country.

Such close attention of the Kazakh authorities to the Internet is all the more surprising that the number of Internet users in Kazakhstan is only about 4% of the population. This state of affairs is explained by the horrific prices of the Internet from the state-owned monopolist Kazakhtelecom.