Issue 3. Between Big Brother and the Digital Utopia: e-Governance in Post-Totalitarian Space
Annasoltan
Annasoltan is a Turkmen-born, Western-educated journalist who writes about Turkmenistan and is the main Turkmenistan blogger for www.neweurasia.net. She holds a Bachelors degree with honors in Arts (mass media and communications) from an Anglo-American university, which must remain unnamed. One among a few well-known Turkmen journalists, she works under a pseudonym for security reasons. With her blogposts, Annasoltan wants to promote the notion of a ‘free media’ among Turkmens and other Central Asians. She wishes to give ordinary Turkmen people a voice which they are denied in the Turkmen state media. Through blogging, she illustrates the tragi-comic nature of neo-Stalinism in Turkmenistan, providing a broader context for social and political issues. Her blog posts and articles offer insights into her country’s restrictive policies, its urban spaces, its health infrastructure and also new media in Turkmenistan.
3.1 State of Ambivalence: Turkmenistan in the Digital Age
In 2007, the new president of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov resolved to open up the country to new technologies, thereby allowing access to the outside world. This report gauges these new Internet policies and the nature of everyday digital access in Turkmenistan’s short and recent digital history. Turkmenistan presents a complex picture. The government runs a few internet cafes and recently 3G spectrum has been made available, holding out the promise of widespread and continuous web connectivity. Yet this is negated by the Internet’s limited reach and spread, strict censorship laws, bureaucratic obstacles, prohibitive pricing and the absence of consumer-friendly telecom services. The state’s ambivalent policies notwithstanding, there are a few instances of the vitality of chat rooms and the efforts of Turkmens in optimizing the full potential of the Internet. This complex picture of rigorous control and small pockets of web engagement are the focus of this report on Turkmenistan in the digital age.
Language of contribution: English