Blocking of Websites to get Worse
Sept 2nd 2006, The Government of Pakistan has dealt yet another severe blow to the Internet community in Pakistan, as it has now created a body constituted by the Ministry of Information Technology which would examine contents of websites reported or found to be offensive or containing anti-state material and block them off in Pakistan.
It is sad that instead of helping promote the progressive growth of the Internet in Pakistan, the government is choosing to go the opposite direction and slowly creating hurdles upon hurdles in the progressive path of Pakistan. With such a worsening situation of blocking easy access to information technology how can we as a nation compete against the Internet giants around the world.
I feel that censorship will not stop the problem, its like beating a child and hope he behaves, which we never will. My opinion is to keep an open Internet policy and let the people of Pakistan decide what content they would like to see, leave it as a non-issue and no one will notice anything, make it an issue and the entire world watches closely with a microscope. Would some please tell these goofs how to run a country!
Don’t Block the Blog – Committee Formed to Block Websites
News Report Body set up to block websites – DAWN 3rd Sept 2006
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China has a much more severe blocking regime, and the internet growth there has been fine.. great even.
Its a very volatile issue, but honestly, if done with responsiblity, blocking could actually be good for us.
Atleast its better than blocking off the whole of Blogspot. :P
if PTA gives me 100,000 dollars/month then I promise you guys then i will never block your sites:D [under the table deal] ;)
My opinion is to keep an open Internet policy and let the people of Pakistan decide what content they would like to see,
ROFL! Doctor yaar tum boht maskhari kartay ho!
People of Pakistan cant even select the right leader and you are talking about sites.ehhe funny
Oh no the government is planning to block websites yet again. What will we do if we need to read the news or read some interesting “anti-government” news. If we only had people who gossiped about everyday life regardless of the ban.
Sorry for being so sarcastic but then banning websites cant supress freedom of speech. Let people what they want to do. If people want access to knowledge they will climb walls to get what they want. We all know that it cant last forever.
Oh boy! Thats bad news! Did they define “offensive? I hope “offensive does not include websites with unorthodox religious contents. Or websites like mine would be in trouble!
The fact is, there’s no effective way to censor the Internet in broad strokes. Only dumb totalitarian governments like the UAE and China believe that adding censorware to your network will prevent the naughty stuff from slopping in. This is not about censorship, this about totalitarianism. I am shocked at reading Adnan and Mansoor’s responses. Sadly, they’ve only known censorship all their lives and take it for granted. What with state run television and curfews and women living opressed, they think that the citizens are better off. I don’t understand what is “good” about this in any form or manner.
[...] I recently read on Dr. Alvi’s blog about the formulation of a committee in Pakistan that will decide what websites are to be disallowed on the national internet system, based on it’s contents. This idea sounds absurd to me, especially when considered in light of President Musharraf’s (extremely) vocal expression of his belief in free media. I vividly recall him saying (roughly translated into English): Niether do these mullas enjoy themselves, nor do they let others. If they don’t like what’s on TV, just turn it off. [...]
[...] Another veteran Pakistani blogger, Teeth Maestro, offers sane advice: I feel that censorship will not stop the problem, its like beating a child and hope he behaves, which we never will. My opinion is to keep an open Internet policy and let the people of Pakistan decide what content they would like to see, leave it as a non-issue and no one will notice anything, make it an issue and the entire world watches closely with a microscope. Would some please tell these goofs how to run a country! [...]