The “House of Free Creativity” in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan cost $17 million to build. President Saparmurat Niyazov inaugurated the book-shaped edifice today, and it will house media organizations. What’s funny here is that the press in that Central Asian nation is anything but free: internet access, newspapers, TV, radio, and other forms of communication are controlled by the state, routinely monitored and censored by Niyazov’s regime which is known for a legacy of human rights abuses. The country is #3 on the CPJ’s list of most-censored nations.
[Via Boing Boing]