Tag: Censorship

  • Dissecting Pakistani Documents on Wikileaks

    Over the past few days Wikileaks has been regularly releasing an interesting set of secure cables on Pakistan. it is my belief that these documents will without doubt go down into history books to have been a world changing event, We here in Pakistan till now dont see anything that may suprirse us, we knew…

  • What is Blasphemy?

    Blasphemy, in its literal meanings, is defined as a behaviour or language expressing disrespect for God or for something sacred The issue of blasphemy, highlighted again by the recent banning of certain websites in Pakistan, has caught the attention of everyone again, through debates on media. I also read and heard different versions of thought…

  • Faceblockistan

    Rebecca McKinson writes a blog post More problems in Facebookistan, here last paragraph quite aptly sums up the frustrations of the Muslim community as a whole – she says This larger context also helps explain the extent to which moderate and cosmopolitan Muslim Facebook users who believe in free speech against censorship were so alienated…

  • Pink Hitler irks Sicilians

    A series of billboards have been placed across the city of Palermo in Sicily with the image of Adolf Hitler dressed in Pink with the caption “Change your style. Don’t follow your leader” while the swastika on Hitler’s armband has been replaced by a heart. It seems this has sparked a row across Italy many…

  • Death of Collective Wisdom

    Is there a competition going on in Pakistan between institution to earn shame and notoriety for their nation?” my colleague asked me casually while we were having some drinks and watching a news television. “We are on that path for last 40years”, I answered stubbornly. Can there anything such shameful to force you behave that…

  • The Strange Islam Originating from Lahore

    There is a ‘mass madness’ ranging from TV talk shows to headlines of News Papers and debate on internet. Charged workers of religious organizations are out in streets of Pakistan. As Malaysian are relatively more religious people as compared to Pakistani’s and share the same Prophet. I was thinking that today country would be choked…

  • One Facebook, Two Faces: A Piece by a Virtually Dead Man

    I had been banned from Facebook and my account had been disabled a night before Facebook was banned in Pakistan. Before all this happened, I visited the blasphemous page “Draw Muhammad Day” and the content on the page hurt me badly. Once again a certain group of westerners called it the “freedom of expression” and…

  • Facebook Censorship Press Conference, My Position

    I think a clarification is needed regarding my Press Conference on the Facebook issue on 20th May in Karachi. My position at the Press Conference was to vehemently condemn the blasphemous cartoons. There is absolutely no compromise on this issue. What was being argued by us and is open for debate was to question the…

  • Prophets, protests and holocaust

    Anyone who’s been on Youtube or Facebook or Blogs in general knows that no intelligent conversation can take place between two Internet-commenters. It’s like the paralympics being hosted on the Interwebs. Even if you win, you’re still retarded. During the last fortnight, ever since this unfortunate drawing contest issue caught fire. I’ve been reading countless…

  • PRESS CONFERENCE: Protest Against Nationwide Government Ban of Facebook

    For Immediate Release Defenders of Internet Freedom Protest Against Nationwide Government Ban of Facebook On Wednesday 19th May 2010, the Lahore High Court ordered the banning of Facebook across Pakistan. Facebook is the world’s most popular social media network and is used by over 400 million globally. In Pakistan, over 2 million people use Facebook…

  • Lahore High Court orders Facebook blocked till the 31st of May

    Following hot in the footsteps of the controversial Draw Mohammed Day, Lahore High Court has issued orders to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block facebook up till the 31st of May on an petition lodged by Islamic Lawyers Movement on Tuesday Daily Times: Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued…

  • World Day Against Cyber Censorship in Pakistan

    As a long time activists working for a free and open Internet in Pakistan, I would like to join Reporters Sans Frontieres in highlighting the World Day Against Cyber Censorship today 12th March. This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. It is…

  • PTA blocks website : Make Pakistan Better

    In an email sent just now by the webmaster of Make Pakistan Better, I was shocked to read that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Director General (Enforcement) Yawer Yasin has instructed all its Zonal Directors on 18th January 2010 to block the website http://makepakistanbetter.com on an IP level. Since its blocked from Pakistan one can…

  • PTA blocks Asif Ali Zardari’s ‘Shut-up’ Youtube Video

    Sunday evening Youtube.com started facing intermittent reports of inaccessibility. It initially started off with a simple white page saying “This Site is Accessible” subsequent reports were submitted on Herdict Web shows the inaccessibility lasted for about an hour but then everything recovered back to normal. It was then later reported that the crackdown by the…