PODGORICA, Dec 24 – The former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro has banned public sector staff from accessing the popular Internet websites Facebook and YouTube at work, the government said Wednesday.
Employees at state-run institutions who attempt to log in to Facebook and YouTube, the social networking and video sharing sites, would be greeted by the message "access denied" during working hours from Thursday.
"With the aim of optimising traffic and lessening the network loads of governmental agencies during work, access was disabled to potentially dangerous sites and sites that generate large capacities," the government told AFP.
Montenegro, an Adriatic country with a population of around 650,000, has posted significant growth in Internet use in recent years.
It has an estimated 14,000 Facebook users, according to the web portal Cafemontenegro.com. The popularity of YouTube has also grown quickly in the ex-Yugoslav state.
According to Bit, a local information technology magazine, around 40 percent of Montenegrins were registered Internet and wireless users in 2007, up from single-digit figures just a few years ago.
About The Author
