A popular religion-oriented Uzbek online media group Azon.uz has closed its website, stopped broadcasting online television and radio channel, and deleted all social-media pages without giving a reason.
Mubashshir Ahmad, the founder of the media group that specializes in religious and educational topics, said on his Facebook page that the reason for the closure will be disclosed later, without giving any further details.
The sudden closure of Azon.uz, which had an average of 400,000-500 000 visitors per month, has sparked a wave of criticism among media and religious experts in Uzbekistan, who suggested that the move was a result of the authoritarian government's efforts to restrict free speech at a time when several trials of journalists and bloggers are under way.
Uzbek officials haven't replied to an RFE/RL request for comment on the closure of Azon.uz.
In June 2021, a court fined four members of the Azon.uz website for posting religious materials without the official approval that is mandatory in Uzbekistan for the publication of religious content online. The former editor in chief of Azon.uz, Abdulaziz Muborak, called it an attempt to "silence the site."
Uzbek political scientist Kamoliddin Rabbimov said on Facebook that the closure of Azon.uz was a consequence of the authorities' crackdown on religious content online.
"If you notice, in recent years almost all religious websites have been closed in Uzbekistan. Freedom of conscience and religion were misunderstood by authorities, which are now banning" such freedoms, Rabbimov said.
In April, Human Rights Watch documented seven cases over the past three years in which Uzbek authorities brought criminal charges against people for storing or sharing content containing "religious extremist" ideas, "in violation of their right to freedom of religion or belief and expression."
President Shavkat Mirziyoev's arrival in power after the death of long-serving strongman Islam Karimov in 2016 was associated with a thaw in one of the world's most repressive countries, with new, albeit limited media freedoms among the most immediate fruits of the leadership change.
The new environment led to an explosion in the popularity of blogging, with Telegram channels themed on religion, politics, and other previously taboo topics proliferating.
Mirziyoev's own exhortations on the subject of free of speech have been frequent since then. In February 2021, Mirziyoev hailed journalists as "a force that justly imparts our achievements and shortcomings to our people."