MAY 18 2012 – Russian language media are reporting that Tajikistan has banned the new film by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen about a dictator who risks his life to crush democracy.
The Dictator premiered around Central Asia on May 17 other than in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, which may also have banned the film, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
If true, banning the film gives outsiders an insight into the psychology of the Tajik authorities who have spent much of the past few years clamping down on personal freedom under the guise of fighting an Islamic insurgency.
President Emomali Rakhmon has ruled over Tajikistan since a civil war in the mid-1990s.
ENDS