nathanr|ca

Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:15am EDT

ALMATY (Reuters) – Internet users in Kazakhstan complained of censorship Friday after being unable to access the popular blogging service Livejournal, but the state-owned telecoms company denied it was blocking it.

Associates of Rakhat Aliyev, the former son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev who fell out with the veteran leader last year, started their own blog on Livejournal in June which often contains critical comments about the government.

"This is outrageous. They used to shut down papers and television channels, now they are shutting down the internet," a Livejournal blogger wrote in a posting.

A spokesman for Russian company SUP, which owns the website, said Livejournal itself was not blocking Kazakh users.

Source: Reuters