Internet Enemies 2010 - Turkmenistan

Domain name: .tm
Population: 5,342,342
Internet-users: 127,000
Average charge for one hour's connection at a cybercafé: 0.8 to 1.4 US$
Average monthly salary: around 205 US$
Number of imprisoned netizens: 0

President Berdymukhamedov has partially broken the diplomatic isolation maintained by his predecessor, the tyrant Niyazov. But the relative economic openness has not translated into more Internet or social freedoms. Scarcely 1% of the population has access to the Web. Information is still oppressively controlled in this post-Stalinian dictatorship.

Tentative improvements

Individual Web connections have only been authorized since 2008. Permission for Internet access was first granted to businesses, then gradually extended to their employees, and finally to the country's citizens. Pyramid Research, a telecommunications research organization, estimates the number of individual subscriptions as of the end of 2009 at 13,200 and the number of users at 127,000. The American Information Center, French Cultural Center, and International Turkmen Turk University, as well as some Turkmen private schools, are proposing access to the international network.

Connection speed is not as slow as it used to be: it now takes only a few minutes to open an e-mail, as opposed to at least a half-hour in 2008. Sending or receiving a photo takes longer, and a video takes 30 minutes.

Given this situation, very few Turkmen have acquired an Internet connection in their homes. The cost is prohibitive: a monthly subscription costs USD 5, and an additional USD 0.50 per hour. The average salary is less than USD 200 per month.

The incumbent president has kept his promise to allow cyber cafés to open. However, users are required to show an ID and to pay the considerable sum of USD 1 to 2 per hour. Some 15 of them are currently operating in the capital Ashgabat, as well as in other large cities such as Dashoguz. Uniformed policemen are no longer being posted at cyber café entrances to intimidate customers, but the secret service still raids them on occasion. In one raid in 2008, an Internet user accused of consulting prohibited websites was arrested.

The "Turkmenet"

Apart from a few businesses and foreign embassies that can access the Worldwide Web, the few other Internet users can only access an ultra-censored version of the Internet nicknamed "the Turkmenet," unless they know how to use censorship circumvention tools.

A very strict filtering is now focused on critical publications likely to initially target local users and potential dissidents, mainly for linguistic reasons. Opposition websites such as XpoHo.tm and Gundogar, and regional news sites covering Central Asia, such as ferghana.ru or eurasianet, are blocked.

YouTube and LiveJournal were rendered inaccessible at the end of 2009 to prevent Turkmen from blogging or sending videos abroad. Facebook, which is not used very extensively in the country, is not blocked – at least not for the moment.

However, Turkmen can visit most generalist NGO Websites. The same scenario applies to Russian and Turkmen media sites that contain no articles critical of the country, notably because of the significant commercial ties between Turkmenistan on one hand, and Russia and Turkey on the other.

The government is keeping a close watch on its netizens' activities. Officials prefer to monitor the surfers' e-mail accounts (mail.ru, hotmail, etc.), rather than block them, so that they can identify potential dissidents.

Western businesses: Vectors of change?

The Russian telecommunications company MTS holds an 80% share of the mobile telephone market, which is an increasingly lucrative sector. MTS is now also offering Internet access via GPRS, which may facilitate access for the general population. The terms of use specify that the Internet is filtered.

Improving telecommunications infrastructures is not an absolute priority for authorities at the moment, when close to 25% of the population are still living below the poverty level. The international community cannot be counted upon to further the cause of freedom of expression in a country which seems to be an Eldorado for Western businesses enticed by Turkmen gas fields. However, the country's economic openness could have a positive impact on the Internet penetration rate within the population, as long as the latter does not try to explore subjects deemed too sensitive, or develop any form of civil society. Foreign companies could become vectors of change by calling for a generalization of modern means of communication suitable for commercial and entrepreneurial activities.