“These Internet resources ... including LiveJournal ... spread materials with propaganda of terrorism and religious extremism and open calls to committing acts of terror and making explosive devices,” Ailana Iskendirova, spokeswoman for the district court in the capital Astana, told Reuters.
Kazakhstan, where 70 percent of the 16.5 million population are Muslim, has so far avoided the militant violence that has hit ex-Soviet neighbors in Central Asia. But a recent series of unexplained blasts and violent clashes between well-armed gunmen in several parts of the vast, oil-rich country have unnerved the authorities.
The incidents have cast a shadow over Kazakhstan’s image as a stable nation in the volatile region which borders Afghanistan.
The court spokeswoman declined to give examples of the illegal activities, adding that the court had taken its decision after a prosecutor launched a case against these sites, saying “their materials contradict Kazakhstan’s legislation.”
“The decision comes into force on Aug. 20,” she said. Svetlana Ivannikova, head of LiveJournal Russia(www.livejournal.ru), which is popular among Kazakh bloggers, said she had not seen the ruling and did not know why the site had been blocked in Kazakhstan. “The Kazakh state authorities have not addressed us with any
requests to delete any materials from LiveJournal,” she said.
“It is hard to make any comments until we have seen the relevant ruling by the court.”
Kazakhstan, ruled with a firm hand by President Nursultan Nazarbayev for more than two decades, is Central Asia’s largest and strongest economy. But human rights groups and the West have criticized its record on democracy, pointing to rigid state control of the media.
In 2008, access to LiveJournal was blocked after Rakhat Aliyev, the fugitive former son-in-law of Nazarbayev who fell out with the veteran leader, started his own blog on the site which contained scathing criticism of the government.
