ISLAMABAD: Allegations of blasphemy related to online content have registered an increase in Pakistan, according to the recently-released ‘Freedom on the Net 2015’ report. Compiled by Freedom House – a US government-funded organisation that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights issues – the report once again awarded Pakistan a ‘Not […]
KARACHI: The cyber rights groups have voiced their demands from the government to publically share the draft of the cyber crime bill and called for inclusion of civil society members in the revision of the bill before it is passed in the National Assembly. In a discussion held in the Habib University over the ‘controversial’ […]
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Nasreen has written a letter to the Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef regarding concerns of people on the ban of social media website Youtube. ‘The ban on Youtube has not been lifted despite the fact that Senate and National Assembly’s Committees on Human Rights have given approval to lift the […]
Sir: Even those outside of the ‘liberal-fascist’ viewpoint are now beginning to understand that the ban on YouTube is suspect, and few believe this issue is about blasphemous content anymore. The question is: who benefits from the YouTube ban in Pakistan? Actually, there is a long list of those benefiting from the ongoing blockage of […]
It is rare for our National Assembly to agree unanimously to anything and for them to vote unanimouly for a resolution that proposes the lifting of the ban on YouTube is little short of astonishing. The resolution was moved by PPP lawmaker Shazia Marri who has long campaigned for its removal. Her argument was a […]
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday sought comments from the information technology secretary and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman on a petition challenging a blanket ban on YouTube, a video-sharing website. A division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan was seized with the hearing of the petition jointly filed by as many […]
ISLAMABAD: The government holds no plan to restrict important services such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber and Skype after spectrum auction of multi-billion dollars 3G and 4G technologies in Pakistan, official sources confirmed to The News on Friday. The Cellular companies are worried about streams of their cash-inflows in terms of their voice services as increased […]
THIS is apropos the report ‘No way to block Internet content’ (March 25). I agree with the statement. As in the case of YouTube, there are many proxy websites or VPN software which provide access to all the blocked content on the Internet. Why is the government wasting its energy on such an unpreventable issue? […]
Given the exponential relevance of the internet in the dissemination of information over the past two decades, the need for internet freedom is justifiably being described as a right of freedom to information. Low literacy rates, economic disparities and poor infrastructure are commonly blamed for expansion of the internet in developing countries like Pakistan. However, […]
The draft of ‘Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of Pakistan 2014’ is being prepared for presentation in the Parliament. Although this draft law contains welcoming procedural safeguards, quite a number of provisions violate international standards on freedom of expression. Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan and International Organization working on freedom of expression, Article 19, have expressed […]
As the Lahore High Court continues to debate whether the ban on YouTube should be lifted, a survey has revealed that a mere 22% of Pakistanis want an internet that is free of official censorship. This was the lowest percentage scored out of the 24 developing countries, where the use of internet is either prohibited […]
ISLAMABAD: The government has admitted that there is no technical way to block all objectionable content on the internet. In a written reply to a lawmaker’s query, the National Assembly was informed on Monday that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had carried out a search for objectionable material on the internet and blocked 31,819 such […]
LAHORE: A group of lawyers favouring the ban on YouTube staged protested demonstration outside the Lahore High Court against “blasphemy or any steps taken to defend blasphemers.” Bytes for All, the petitioner, is seeking withdrawal of the ban on the popular video sharing website. Its counsel Yasser Latif Hamdani and four officials appeared at the […]
Classical ballet has always been popular with our daughter. She will watch it for hours, imitating the dancers with a developing confidence and awareness of the storylines of the more popular ballets, with Swan Lake being the long-time favourite. For the umpteenth time, we watched the finale and compared different ballet companies’ versions of the […]
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