Uzbekistan remained one of the world’s worst environments for internet freedom due to arbitrary arrests of individuals who criticize the government online, routine website blocking, and excessive surveillance practices. In recent years, the government has ramped up its persecution of people who supported or participated in 2022 protests against a plan to downgrade Karakalpakstan’s autonomous status.

• In December 2024, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Law on Telecommunications, which expanded the remit of the Ministry of Digital Technologies and outlined the creation of a separate, nominally independent Telecommunications Regulatory Agency. The new agency was formally established in August 2025, after the coverage period (A5).1
• According to a January 2025 publication from the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, 1,389 online items deemed to promote extremism and terrorism had been banned in Uzbekistan, up from 800 in January 2024. The materials include websites, which are blocked, as well as social media pages and groups (B1, B2, and B3).2
• In the first 10 months of 2024, over 30,000 people were prosecuted under defamation and insult charges in the Administrative Code, with several cases concerning online speech. More than 200 of those prosecuted were reportedly sent to prison (C3).3
• In April 2025, a court in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, sentenced Rinat Uttambetov to 2 years and 3 months in prison for “disseminating materials that threaten public security” and “encroaching on the constitutional order” in relation to a video he allegedly shared on Telegram during the Karakalpakstan protests in 2022. He was extradited from Kazakhstan, where he had been arrested in April 2024 (C3).4
• In February 2025, Mustafa Tursynbayev, a blogger from Karakalpakstan who was sentenced to 5 years in prison on extortion charges in a closed March 2024 trial, died in a Tashkent hospital. The Prosecutor’s Office said a section of a wall had fallen on him at a construction site, where he had been working as a prisoner (C3 and C7).5

• 1“Telecommunications Regulatory Agency to be established in Uzbekistan,” Gazeta.uz, August 28, 2025, https://www.gazeta.uz/en/2025/08/28/telecommunications-regulatory-agenc…; Vakhidov & Partners, “The Law ‘On Telecommunications’ Has Been Adopted in a New Edition,” February 6, 2025, https://www.legal500.com/developments/thought-leadership/the-law-on-tel….
• 2“Расширен список интернет-материалов, признанных в Узбекистане экстремистскими [The list of internet materials recognized as extremist in Uzbekistan has been expanded],” Gazeta.uz, January 8, 2025, https://www.gazeta.uz/ru/2025/01/08/content/.
• 3В Узбекистане в этом году более 30 тысяч граждан привлекли к ответственности за клевету и оскорбление [In Uzbekistan, more than 30,000 citizens have been prosecuted for slander and insult this year.],” Ozodlik, December 2, 2024, https://rus.ozodlik.org/a/uzbekistan-kleveta-oskorblenie/33222658.html; https://upl.uz/obshestvo/46698-news.html; International Partnership for Human Rights, “Freedoms under Threat as Uzbekistan Continues to Put Pressure on Journalists and Human Rights Defenders,” July 1, 2025, https://iphronline.org/articles/freedoms-under-threat-as-uzbekistan-con…; Umida Niyazova, “A Dark Cloud: No Space for Freedom of Expression in Mirziyoyev’s Uzbekistan,” The Diplomat, June 18, 2025, https://thediplomat.com/2025/06/a-dark-cloud-no-space-for-freedom-of-ex….
• 4International Partnership for Human Rights, “Freedoms under Threat as Uzbekistan Continues to Put Pressure on Journalists and Human Rights Defenders,” July 1, 2025, https://iphronline.org/articles/freedoms-under-threat-as-uzbekistan-con….
• 5International Partnership for Human Rights, “Freedoms under Threat as Uzbekistan Continues to Put Pressure on Journalists and Human Rights Defenders,” July 1, 2025, https://iphronline.org/articles/freedoms-under-threat-as-uzbekistan-con…; Reporters without Borders, “Uzbekistan: The slow death of journalism in Karakalpakstan,” July 1, 2024, https://rsf.org/en/uzbekistan-slow-death-journalism-karakalpakstan; Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, “Karakalpak blogger Mustafa Tursynbaev died in custody in Uzbekistan,” February 17, 2025, https://tmhelsinki.org/article/5a3f6edf-4be9-472c-a988-0f92a10b904d; Mihra Rittman, “Investigate Uzbekistan Deaths, Serious Injuries in Custody,” Human Rights Watch, February 19. 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/19/investigate-uzbekistan-deaths-serio….

While reforms adopted since President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took office in 2016 have led to improvements on some issues, Uzbekistan remains an authoritarian state. No opposition parties operate legally. The legislature and judiciary effectively serve as instruments of the executive branch, which initiates reforms by decree, and the media are still tightly controlled by the authorities. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment persist, although highly publicized cases of abuse have resulted in dismissals and prosecutions for some officials, and small-scale corruption has been meaningfully reduced.

This report has been abridged for Freedom on the Net 2025 due to ongoing budget constraints. Please consider making a donation to support future editions of this vital resource.

For additional background information, see last year’s full report.