The authoritarian government of Turkmenistan has banned the word “coronavirus,” according to a report.
A former Soviet satellite state located in Central Asia just north of Iran, Turkmenistan is ruled by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who is known as “father protector.” His country has now mandated that citizens are not allowed to say “coronavirus” in public, according to watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.
The word has also been scrubbed from government documents in Turkmenistan, which, like North Korea, claims it has not had a single case of COVID-19. People seen wearing masks are reportedly subject to arrest by plainclothes officers patrolling the country.
“The Turkmen authorities have lived up to their reputation by adopting this extreme method for limiting all information about the coronavirus,” said Jeanne Cavelier, head of Reporters Without Borders’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
“This denial of information not only endangers the Turkmen citizens most at risk but also reinforces the authoritarianism imposed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov,” Cavelier added.
Turkmenistan rated last in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, behind North Korea.
Worldwide, there have been more than 930,000 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 46,800 associated deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
