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Fergana.ru reports that the Namangan regional administration of Uzbekistan has created a working group which conducted a check of Internet cafe and gaming center owners. The audit revealed 82 Internet cafes and gaming centers operating in the city of Namangan. A total of 113 Internet and computer game operators are registered, and all of them are working legally, in accordance with their licenses.

The audit was officially conducted as part of a youth anti-gambling and pornography campaign. However, fergana.ru believes this is a smokescreen for censorship, since the audit also verified access to news and political sites blocked in Uzbekistan, including fergana.ru, muslimuzbekistan.com, uzbekistanerk.org, and uznews.net.

The article also notes that it's not only Internet cafes and gaming centers that are being checked. For a long time now all departmental and official bodies have been reporting on the presence of office computers and Internet access.

The full text of the article is available in Russian at the following URL: http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=5069.