Defining obscenity | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Defining obscenity

By: Anwer Mooraj

KARACHI: This is with reference to Mazhar Abbas’ article “Defining obscenity” (September 29). He wrote a very good piece on the topic. He has a gift for cutting through a lot of verbiage and arriving at the kernel of an argument in seconds. I thoroughly agree with him when he says that different people have different ideas on what constitutes obscenity — just as different people have different ideas on what is right and what is wrong. I also agree with him when he says that it is not about what is written in our Constitution (which has been abrogated three times in 40 years), but about what people would like to see on their screens. Also, who has given the Jamaat-e-Islami or Pemra or any other body the right to decide what I should and should not see on my computer and TV screen?

The hate film against the Holy Prophet (pbuh) was disgusting and reprehensible, but surely the thing to do was to ask YouTube to permanently remove it instead of blotting out the service completely. And if YouTube had refused … well, President Asif Ali Zardari would have had to find a solution. I not only miss the treasure trove of music, history and travel that YouTube offers, but also the excitement of discovering a singer or aria I had never heard of before and being able to download black and white classics like Crin Blanc by Albert Lamorisse and Battleship Potemkin by Sergey Eisenstein. So, get on with it Pemra. As it is, there is not a hell of a lot in the way of entertainment in this country. Don’t take away from us what little we still had.

The Express Tribune