‘Protect morality, ethics…': Why Kyrgyzstan banned online pornography
Japarov's office said the ban on pornography is to "protect moral and ethical values" in mostly Muslim Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous Central Asian country of 7 million people which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The legislation requires internet providers to block websites based on decisions by the ministry of culture. Violators will face fines.
Once Central Asia's most democratic country, Kyrgyzstan has seen increasing pressure on opposition groups and independent media since Japarov, a populist and nationalist, swept to power on a wave of protests in 2020.
He has made the protection of what he calls traditional Kyrgyz values a centrepiece of his agenda.
Also on Tuesday, Japarov signed a decree imposing a state monopoly on international internet traffic.
Under the decree, state-owned telecoms company ElCat will become Kyrgyzstan's sole provider of international internet traffic for a year-long trial period, starting on August 15.
All other Kyrgyz telecom operators will be required to transfer their contracts for international bandwidth to ElCat within two months.
Bishkek-based political analyst Emil Juraev told Reuters: 'This decision only adds to the growing role of the state at the expense of market freedom in Kyrgyzstan.'
The move comes ahead of a parliamentary election due in 2026, and a presidential poll due in 2027. Japarov, whose allies dominate the legislature, has indicated he will run again.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
11 minutes ago
- Mint
Why Mortgage Lenders Are Ignoring Trump's Rollback on Home Appraisal Reviews
At one midsized US mortgage lender, almost a quarter of customers who dispute property appraisals find that the value of their home had been miscalculated. It's an industrywide issue that has historically penalized minority groups, and now President Donald Trump has offered lenders the chance to ignore his predecessor's attempts to make it easier for homeowners to question the valuations assigned by property appraisers. Trump has scrapped some of the guidelines, part of his team's vow to stamp out what it sees as initiatives that support diversity, equity and inclusion. Many financial professionals agree that home appraisals can be unreliable, and that Black homeowners and other minorities are often put at a significant disadvantage. This can be especially damaging given that home ownership is the top wealth-creation tool in the US — and an appraisal is a key determinant of how much, if anything, someone can borrow. With their decision to end some of the requirements related to home valuations, however, Trump and his cabinet members may have little impact on lenders' practices. That's because there's fresh evidence that the changes the Biden administration put in place are supported by the industry. Some of the country's biggest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and U.S. Bancorp, said they would make no policy changes as a result of the rollback. New American Funding, which also isn't planning to change its approach, was the only financial institution of more than 10 contacted by Bloomberg to disclose information about disputed home valuations. The Tustin, California-based mortgage lender, which provided roughly $14 billion of mortgage loans last year, said an average 2.5% of its customers request new valuations each month. Of those contested, roughly 22% are found to need an adjustment. New American didn't share a breakdown of borrowers' requests by race. 'The changes have made it much easier for the borrower,' said Michelle Rogers, New American's chief valuation officer. 'It's more transparent and the borrower knows they can initiate it.' The appraisal directives were put in place following a deep dive by the Biden administration into prejudices in the business. One of Trump's housing regulators, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, said rolling them back was part of an attempt by the president to put an end to the 'obsession' with DEI. The administration also has vowed to make deep cuts to the federal apparatus that enforced fair housing and fair lending laws, from slashing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff to gutting the Justice Department's Civil Rights division. A HUD official who spoke on background said the department's recent reforms simply reverted its stance to the way things were before Biden-era regulators imposed their standards. Lenders aren't being barred from letting borrowers dispute their appraisals, said the official who declined to be identified. The White House hasn't responded to a request for comment. Black homeowners have long reported having their homes valued more highly after taking down all evidence of their race. Research from the Brookings Institution and the federally controlled housing finance agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has shown that home appraisals can be affected by racial bias, which in turn affects the value of homes in entire neighborhoods. Brookings found, for example, that homes in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black are valued between 21% and 23% lower than comparable homes in white neighborhoods, with appraisal bias as one of several contributing factors. Economists at Freddie Mac reported in 2021 that greater percentages of homes in majority Black and Latino census tracts were undervalued compared with those in white census tracts, leading them to conclude that there was a 'valuation gap' between homes in different neighborhoods. The appraisal problem for minority borrowers also is a problem for lenders, since having low appraisals can prevent a homeowner from qualifying for a mortgage refinancing or a new home loan. That means the lender loses out on valuable business. Banks also suffer when appraisers make mistakes in the opposite direction, valuing properties too highly, because it means the bank can't safely rely on the value of a property as collateral for a loan. The reforms that the mortgage industry recently adopted to try to make the appraisal process fairer originated with a Biden administration task force called PAVE , which was formed in 2021. The group consisted of public officials from 13 different agencies, and its goal was to produce a report with recommended changes to a suite of different mortgage industry standards. PAVE recommended more training for home appraisers and higher standards for appraisers seeking to qualify for professional licenses. Those changes were handled by the Appraisal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves as the regulator for home appraisers. A spokeswoman for the foundation declined to comment on the Trump administration's recent changes, but said that new education and licensing standards put in place last year are still in effect. PAVE also called for an industrywide requirement for mortgage lenders to let borrowers request 'a reconsideration of value' if they disagreed with an appraiser's determination. Last year, regulators began requiring mortgage lenders to decide how they would standardize their procedures and to explain them clearly to their customers. In a rare win for the government, the policy received support from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Federal housing regulation includes a web of rules issued by different agencies, including HUD and also Fannie and Freddie. The new home-appraisal guidance went into effect for all of the housing agencies. But so far, the Trump administration has only rolled back the policy for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which help low- to moderate-income families attain home ownership. On July 17, Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, proposed a bill that would make mortgage lenders' ROV policies required by law. It also would expand public access to data on mortgage appraisals by forcing a federal housing regulator to more regularly share details. While fair-housing advocates support the proposal, the bill also has backing from a more unlikely source: the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. The group represents more than 500,000 mortgage brokers across the US. Its president, Jim Nabors, called the proposed bill 'critical' for ensuring fairness for homebuyers and added: 'Our entire board of directors and membership applaud Senator Warnock.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Stephen A. Smith claps back at Michelle Obama's ‘offensive' ESPN remarks, gives her sharp lesson on reality TV, voting
Stephen A. Smith has responded to Michelle Obama's harsh criticism of ESPN this week, slamming the former First Lady for making 'offensive' remarks about voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential elections. Stephen A. Smith told Michelle Obama that 'you will never hear me utter a negative word about you.' (REUTERS) Smith's statement comes as Obama chastised ESPN and its on-screen personalities, including First Take star Smith, on the most recent episode of her 'IMO' podcast. The former First Lady compared the network to reality TV show 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta'. 'It's the same drama, and they're yelling at each other, and they don't get along, you know? I mean, Stephen A. Smith, he's just like every other talk show host,' she stated, as per Daily Mail. Stephen A. Smith says he is 'still a bit salty' at Michelle Obama Later, Smith hit back at Obama on the new episode of his YouTube show. After encouraging Obama to invite guests with 'dissenting' viewpoints to the IMO podcast, he chastised Obama's remarks about Trump and the Republican party before the presidential election. 'Michelle Obama, I wanna take this opportunity to remind you that while you are revered by me personally, and I truly, truly mean that with the greatest sincerity, I'm still a bit salty at you,' Smith stated. He reminded her that she stated that voting for Trump means vote against her and fellow women during her campaign. 'I want to say for the record - I took major offense to that.' Also Read: Trump blasts Charlamagne tha God as 'low IQ individual' over Epstein files remarks: 'He has no idea what words…' Targetting Obama, he said that it was the only thing that he did not like or appreciate, adding that there are so many factors that influence where your vote will go. 'For some people, it's all about the economy. For others, it's all about national security. For some people, it is immigration. For some people, it's safety in the streets of America. Long before they think about pro-choice or pro-life,' he continued. After hearing the analogy to the Real Housewives, Smith went on to call Obama 'sensational'. 'So this doesn't have anything to do with what you were talking about, how sports and reality TV mirror one another, even though we would beg to differ,' the ESPN anchor said. 'You are so wrong': Smith to Michelle Obama He mentioned reality TV frequently uses fictitious settings and scenarios in order to elicit reactions and other things. 'We're at sports, that's live entertainment, and you're actually competing against one another is big time. No, reality TV is not like that. You're so wrong about that, about that assertion, but that's neither here nor there.' In his concluding remarks, he gave a message to Obama, saying that 'you will never hear me utter a negative word about you.' He, however, added that he still remains 'pretty salty about what you said about us.'
Scroll.in
2 hours ago
- Scroll.in
No parties have filed claims for addition, deletion of names from Bihar draft voter list yet: EC
The Election Commission on Sunday said that no political party has filed claims and objections for the addition or deletion of the names of voters from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar since its publication on Friday. 'From 1 August 2025 (3 PM) till 3 August (3 PM), all political parties put together have filed zero claims and objections for the addition of the names of eligible electors and deletion of the names of ineligible electors,' the poll panel said in a bulletin released on its official website. The draft list was published on Friday as part of the special revision of the electoral rolls in the state, which was announced by the Election Commission on June 24. As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list will need to submit proof of eligibility to vote. This means that 2.9 crore out of the state's 7.8 crore voters – or about 37% of the electors – will have to submit documentary evidence. Voters born before July 1, 1987, must show proof of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, must also submit documents establishing the date and place of birth of one of their parents. Those born after December 2, 2004, will need proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents. The draft voter list published on Friday comprises electors who submitted their enumeration forms to the poll panel between June 24 and July 26. They will now have to produce proof of citizenship to make it to the final list that will be published on September 30. With the publication of the list, electors have a month to raise claims and objections, during which eligible voters can be added and ineligible names excluded. During this period, voters who believe their names were wrongly deleted can approach the relevant authorities for redressal. Exclusions higher among women, Muslim-dominated districts A Scroll analysis of the data published by the Election Commission on Friday showed that women made up 55% of voters who were excluded from Bihar's draft voter list after the revision. It also showed that five of the state's 10 districts with the largest share of Muslim population had the highest number of excluded voters. At 15.1%, Gopalganj district in western Bihar saw the highest rate of exclusion in the state. The voter list in the district's Gopalganj Assembly constituency shrunk by 18.25% – also the highest in the state. The draft roll also removed nearly 65.6 lakh voters. Of them, 22.3 lakh were dead, 36.3 lakh had permanently moved or were absent, and 7 lakh were enrolled in multiple places, the Election Commission said.
