Turkmenistan orders sat-dishes removed
August 19, 2011
By Chris Forrester
BBC Monitoring is reporting that the president of Turkmenistan has ordered that all satellite dishes must be removed from houses and buildings. The president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, has ordered his deputy prime minister in charge of transport and communication issues to remove satellite dishes installed on houses and buildings in capital city Asgabat and other major cities and towns.
President Berdimuhamedow, according to Iran’s FARS news agency, says the reason is to protect the architectural environment. He made a similar statement in late 2007.
Usually, Turkmenistan’s population (of about 5 million) watch Russian and Turkish TV programmes via satellite dishes installed on their houses.