Pakistan's Internet censorship

[asq]

What will happen if tomorrow or day after the same court lifts the ban....There has to be some open heart speak here guys....There has to be some sensible opposition as well to what a government does.

That exectly the case, we want sensibility, sensativity, respect and most of all stoping the hate and disrespect and those who hide it under the banmner of freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is and should be based on Intelligent converstions, respecting others values and not to induldge in abusive behaviour and call it freedom of speech.

 

[asq]

Internet contains everything in this world and censoring it is out of question. Banning a few websites will give added incentive for trouble makers to proliferate such content.

Half of Internet is devoted to **** and some estimates put it at 60%. Some religions and beliefs are against this. Does that imply, such content is banned even hypothetically considering that such strict censorship is possible? The answer to this is self regulation. Each person should consciously decide on the content he wants to use and those he wants to skip.

Consider the possibility of few people who want to strategically restrict Pakistan's access to Internet and start a campaign to that effect. Will such moves by the government prove as incentive ?

This is not a problem for Pakistan alone but the world at large. Policy should be formulated on how to go ahead in such scenarios.

As for as **** is coencerned, it shouild be banned on Internet because Childern are on Internet all the times and parants no matter how much they try, control cannot be 100%.

Besides it is controlled in west as TVs have V chip. and waht that is for. So may av chiop shouild be invented for Internet.

The woprld at large is full of inuendos and asumptions. lookat the all the wars, strated and inuendos. I donot needto name all those wars.

In this world Internet is not the only medium to rely on, A good Tv broadcast will go a long way and it will not have to depend on ****.

 

[shining eyes]

YOUTUBE IS OPEN AGAIN "ACCESS RELEASED"

 

[SpArK]

As for as **** is coencerned, it shouild be banned on Internet because Childern are on Internet all the times and parants no matter how much they try, control cannot be 100%.

Besides it is controlled in west as TVs have V chip. and waht that is for. So may av chiop shouild be invented for Internet.

The woprld at large is full of inuendos and asumptions. lookat the all the wars, strated and inuendos. I donot needto name all those wars.

In this world Internet is not the only medium to rely on, A good Tv broadcast will go a long way and it will not have to depend on ****.

There are freeware softwares for internet filtering which can be purchased or downloaded. Parents who don't want their children to see it can use this.

There is no foolproof method to completely ban the **** as people are aware of shareware sites and ******** which are of huge popularity in the region.


adult filtering - CNET

 

[asq]

Freekin :- Just a reminder to those uneducated in history.

The man he's praising Sultan Abdul Hamid, he is guilty of committing the Hamidian Massacre, the precursor to the Armenian Genocide which resulted in the massacre of an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Armenians

I've heard him saying a couple of times before that "Musalmaanon ney kisi ka genocide nahin kuya" for he has to prepare for any questions regarding the establishment of a caliphate for the Ottomans are guilty of committing a mass genocide of an estimated 400,000 to 1.8 million Armenians.

we should listen to both sides and here is Turkish side.

 

[sparklingway]

Pakistan lifts ban on YouTube

Thursday, 27 May, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan unblocked popular video sharing website YouTube late Wednesday after banning it in the wake of public outrage over “blasphemous” content.

“YouTube has been unblocked, but the links to sacrilegious content would remain inaccessible in Pakistan,” Khurram Mehran, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told AFP.

Earlier interior minister Rehman Malik said Pakistan was to lift a ban on Facebook and YouTube in the next few days.

The PTA banned access to Facebook and YouTube and other links, and restricted access to Wikipedia, last week over what it called “growing sacrilegious content”.

Malik said Wednesday pages containing blasphemous material would remain blocked but the ban on popular sites including Facebook and YouTube would be lifted in the next few days.

“We discussed this matter in the cabinet meeting today. I told my colleagues that blocking the websites was not the right thing,” Malik told AFP.

“I said that only particular pages that contain blasphemous material should be blocked, not the entire website,” said Malik, adding that in next few days both Facebook and YouTube would be unblocked.

A government statement later said the federal cabinet “strongly condemned” the sketches of Prophet Mohammed and ordered that such material should not be accessible in Pakistan over the Internet.

“The cabinet strongly condemned the blasphemous caricatures on a specific website and directed the Ministry of IT (Information Technology) to ensure that such blasphemous material is not allowed to appear on the Internet in Pakistan.”

When a Facebook user decided to organise an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” competition to promote “freedom of expression”, it sparked a major backlash among Islamic activists in the South Asian country of 170 million.

Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world over the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.

Several thousand Pakistanis took to the streets at the behest of religious groups to protest.

In the wake of the Prophet Mohammed controversy, Pakistan blocked hundreds of web pages to limit access to “blasphemous” material, banning access to US-based Facebook and YouTube -- the two most popular websites in the country.

A court in the eastern city of Lahore ordered the block on Facebook until at least May 31, when it is scheduled to hear a petition from Islamic lawyers.

Although none of the protests has mobilised the masses, sporadic demonstrators have continued to vent anger in Karachi and other cities.

Pakistan also briefly banned YouTube in February 2008 in a similar protest against “blasphemous” cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. –AFP

 

[FreekiN]

FACEBOOK IS UNBANNED.

WELCOME BACK.

 

[freeman]

FFS maybe Pakistan should just ban the internet. Does Pakistan think banning certain websites for a short period of time will change people uploading videos or content that is "blasphemous"?(such a stupid primitive law)
Welcome to the real world where people have differing views to one another, maybe the Pakistan government should encourage people to turn the channel if you dont like what your watching or monitor your childrens internet useage a bit more.
Result of banning "blasphemous" internet content? Makes Pakistan look like a bunch of uneducated zealots

 

[Comet]

FFS maybe Pakistan should just ban the internet. Does Pakistan think banning certain websites for a short period of time will change people uploading videos or content that is "blasphemous"?(such a stupid primitive law)

No Pakistan does not think like that. You assume too much.

Welcome to the real world where people have differing views to one another, maybe the Pakistan government should encourage people to turn the channel if you dont like what your watching or monitor your childrens internet useage a bit more.
Result of banning "blasphemous" internet content? Makes Pakistan look like a bunch of uneducated zealots

Welcome to Pakistan. We think like this. does this count as different views?

 

[Comet]

LHC orders blocking of Google, Yahoo, 7 other sites

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Blasphemous material

By our correspondent

BAHAWALPUR: The Lahore High Court has directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to immediately block nine websites for publishing and promoting sacrilegious material, and ordered the PTA chairman to appear in the court on June 28, 2010 along with all relevant material.

Justice Mazher Iqbal Sidhu of the LHC Bahawalpur Bench, while hearing a write petition on Tuesday, ordered blocking of nine websites including Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, YouTube, Google, Islam Exposed, In The Name Of Allah, Amazon and Bing.

A citizen, Muhammad Sidiq, filed a writ petition No. 3246/2010 in the LHC, seeking a ban on the websites for publishing blasphemous materials and twisting the facts and figure of Holy Quran. Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Hussain Azad also endorsed the viewpoint of the petitioner and demanded blocking of these websites.

Counsel for the petitioner, Latif-ur-Rehman Advocate presented CDs and other evidence in the court, showing that the said websites were publishing sacrilegious material. Later, President High Court Bar Aslam Dhakkar said the court has given a historic decision. He said the legal fraternity would observe a complete strike in Bahawalpur on Wednesday (today) against publication of such material by these websites. He said a meeting would also discuss the situation today.


LHC orders blocking of Google, Yahoo, 7 other sites

 

[blueoval79]

^^^^

Is this a fresh ban???? I thought the issue was dead and buried .

 

[RescueRanger]

Somone needs to educate these judges...

 

[Comet]

^^^ Yes this is fresh Ban.
The people sitting in court are Nut Heads. So are the ones who are behind these petitions.

Someone mentioned, in this very thread, that Pakistan will go to stone age after banning Facebook, which I refuted. But this one is definitely going to take Pakistan to Stone Age.

 

[blueoval79]

Wtf...instead of Banning the sites that boldly publish radical terrorist supporting stuff... they are banning websites that open a window to the world for an average Pakistani.....jerks.

 

[RescueRanger]

Wtf...instead of Banning the sites that boldly publish radical terrorist supporting stuff... they are banning websites that open a window to the world for an average Pakistani.....jerks.

Sadly this is what happens when the people in the judicary are IT Illeterate fools who don't understand the implication of such strong actions.

Millions of businesses and individuals need access to sites like google, msn, yahoo. Not only are they playing into the hands of tempesteous locals but they are sending completely the wrong message.

The administration needs to take notice of this, such bold moves should be pushed through without input from the executive... This is insane.