Turkmenistan: War on Satellite Dishes

[Topper]

Authorities in Turkmenistan are forcing residents to dismantle privately owned satellite dishes, Human Rights Watch said today. A move that unjustifiably interferes with the right to receive and impart information and ideas, this serves to further isolate people in Turkmenistan, one of the most closed and repressive countries in the world, from independent sources of news and information.

At the end of March, 2015, local housing authorities in the capital, Ashgabat, and its suburbs started ordering residents of multistory apartment buildings to take down their satellite dishes, citing simply an “order from above” that allegedly stated the dishes ruined the view of the city. Authorities told residents they could instead get cable television packages through the government or state satellite antennae.

“Satellite television is the last lifeline to the outside world for people in Turkmenistan,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should stop its strong-arm tactics to restrict freedom of expression and let people choose their own news and entertainment sources.”


Full story click here

 

[william-1]

Strange that TurkmenAlem52E/MonacoSat is about to launch a satellite paid for partly by the Turkmenistan Government,
Maybe after the launch only Mini dishes will be allowed ??

Satellite dishes banned in Turkmenistan
The government of Turkmenistan has banned all satellite dishes, and is in the process of “demolishing” existing satellite installations. The intention is to fully block access to international TV and radio signals coming into the country via satellite.
In an official statement the government is demanding all dishes to be removed from apartments of private properties and has fully “prohibited” their use.
According to a report in The Times of Central Asia, the decision “is aimed at fully blocking access of the population of Turkmenistan to hundreds of independent international media outlets which are currently accessible in the country only through satellite dishes, including all leading international news channels in different languages. The main target of this campaign is Radio Azatlyq, the Turkmen-language service of Radio Liberty/Free Europe. It is the only independent source of information about Turkmenistan and the world in the Turkmen language and is widely listened to in the country.”
The press report states that almost every home in the nation has a dish, legally acquired over the past 20 years of satellite broadcasting.
http://advanced-television.com/2015/04/22/satellite-dishes-banned-in-turkmenistan/

 

[william-1]

Successful launch of TurkmenAlem52E/MonacoSat last night,
https://www.satellites.co.uk/forums...nacosat-520e-52-0°Ε.164219/page-2#post-924844

 

[Channel Hopper]

Similar to what happened in Jordan in the early 90's, the government set up a dedicated ministry, any citizen found with a satellite dish on their property was required to take it down and pay a fine. Imports of satellite equipment got into the country disguised as crates of bananas and suchlike.