The Ministry of Culture has explained the decision to regulate the tours of foreign artistes to the country.

In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Obid Nazariyon, the First Deputy Minister of Culture, revealed on January 29 that the main objective of regulating the tours of foreign artistes to Tajikistan is in preventing porn and extremists contents from entering the country.

According to him, the tours of foreign artistes to the country will be regulated in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  

“The Ministry of Culture demands that programs of foreign artistes visiting Tajikistan have no porn or extremist manifestations.  Therefore, their programs must be coordinated with us,” Nazariyon noted.  

However, the deputy minister did not say how pornography and extremism are related to the tours of foreign artistes.  

At the same time, Nazariyon did not answer anything specific to the question regarding the tours of Tajik artistes abroad.  He just mentioned that “this is important for representing the nation and this (regulation) is not illegal.”  

Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, had earlier noted addendum made to the country's new law on culture stipulates that domestic and foreign tours of Tajik artistes and their creative programs must be coordinated with the Ministry of Culture.  

The Parliament of Tajikistan endorsed the new draft law on culture at the end of last year and it officially came into force on January 18 this year.