Turkmenistan bans the word 'coronavirus' and use of face masks, threatens to arrest offenders
While countries around the world are putting in every inch of their resources into fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic, Turkmenistan, a central Asian country, has barred its citizens from using the word "coronavirus".
This is to curtail the flow of information on the ongoing pandemic and the country's citizens can be put behind bars if the government catches them uttering the word, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
These directives are courtesy, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a dictator who took office as the President of the country in 2006. Before becoming the President, Berdymukhamedov was a dentist and later served as the health minister in the previous government.
The government has also forbidden the state-controlled media from using the word. Schools, hospitals and workplaces have removed the word from the health information brochures, according to Turkmenistan Chronicle, one of the few sources of independent news, whose site is blocked within the country.
What is worse, the police are reportedly arresting people who wear face masks or discuss the pandemic in public. “The Turkmen authorities have lived up to their reputation by adopting this extreme method for eradicating all information about the coronavirus,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement.
Under the current President, information about Turkmenistan is tightly restricted. The country's citizens are kept in the dark. They receive only biased information. On March 13, the President gave orders to fumigate public spaces. The country has not reported any coronavirus cases so far.
“This denial of information not only endangers the Turkmen citizens most at risk but also reinforces the authoritarianism imposed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. We urge the international community to react and to take him to task for his systematic human rights violations," Cavelier added.
"Turkmenistan is ranked last in RSF's World Press Freedom Index. It's a place where speaking out is punished and where the government frequently shuts down the country for no reason," Alexander A Cooley, director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and an expert on Central Asian politics, told RSF.