Turkmenistan faces ‘parallel reality’ media landscape

In this illustration photo, a Turkmen man browses through Turkmen media messages at an Internet cafe in Ashgabat on Jan 31, 2024. — AFP

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: “We know about Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. But we can’t access them – everything here is blocked,” said Byashim Ishanguliyev, a fruit seller in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.

To keep information from the outside world hidden from its citizens, Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most closed and isolated countries, exercises almost total control over the Internet.