AKIPRESS.COM - The Internet access and media freedom restrictions are among the other human rights violations in Turkmenistan in the U.S. State Department's  2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on March 3.

Although the 2016 constitution declares Turkmenistan to be a secular democracy, the country has an authoritarian government controlled by the president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and his inner circle, said the report.

Berdimuhamedov has been president since 2006 and remained president following a February 2012 election the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights determined involved limited choice between competing political alternatives.

"The most important human rights problems were: arbitrary arrest and detention; involuntary confinement; torture; disregard for civil liberties, including restrictions on freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and movement; and citizens’ inability to choose their government through free-and-fair elections that include real political alternatives.

The most important human rights problems were: arbitrary arrest and detention; involuntary confinement; torture; disregard for civil liberties, including restrictions on freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and movement; and citizens’ inability to choose their government through free-and-fair elections that include real political alternatives."