• October 27, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Saturday said the government was not interested in prolonging the ban on Youtube. Pakistanis will soon hear good news in this regard after the government established mandatory filters which is a time-consuming and painstaking exercise, he said. Speaking at a certificate-awarding ceremony to students […]

• October 22, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

ISLAMABAD: The government has yet not reached any decision regarding the opening of YouTube that it claimed will be opened soon in the country. Sources said the government sidelined the issue being powerless on the matter. Moreover it also has received suggestions from some quarters that it was better not to touch the issue as […]

• September 19, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

Pakistan enjoys nothing more than proving the wisdom behind the cliché ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’. It is entirely appropriate that the phrase can be traced back to a time in Europe when women would mutilate themselves in order to protect their ‘purity’, since all our most self-destructive actions involve misbegotten notions […]

• September 19, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

ISLAMABAD: In a nondescript, creeper-draped building in the capital of Islamabad, a small team of men is purging Pakistan’s Internet. Shadowy government officials are blocking thousands of pages deemed undesirable. But they are not fast enough. So the government is now testing Canadian software that can block millions of sites a second. The censorship helps […]

• September 17, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

We have now completed a full year with the YouTube ban in place, forcing some to do without one of the most popular internet sites in the world, many others to resort to proxies of various kinds, putting up with the nuisances these ‘by-pass’ mechanisms cause. So, what has the ban, slapped on after an […]

• September 13, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

ISLAMABAD: While experts are unable to find any way to block unwanted material on social networking website, YouTube, the Ministry of Information and Technology is working on ‘Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill’ which it considers can pave the way for a localised version of youtube. The bill might take one or two more months to […]

• September 2, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Information Technology

ISLAMABAD: The ministry of information technology was upbeat about lifting the ban on video sharing website YouTube after having finally acquired the ‘missing’ filters to block blasphemous content within days but it seems that the matter will consume more time. On August 22, State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman revealed during a briefing that […]

• August 31, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Information Technology

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has so far blocked over 21,000 websites containing blasphemous material and while the process is still continuing a report will be sent to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Monday to decide if the YouTube should be reopened. After verifying the strength of the response mechanism placed by the PTA to […]

• August 30, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Front Page

Social media website You Tube was banned in Pakistan in September 2012 after a blasphemous video titled “Innocence of Muslims” was uploaded on it which caused mass scale protests/riots leading to loss of life/property across the Muslim world and the operator of the popular webpage Google, refused to remove it. This was not the first […]

• August 22, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

I had been considering writing on this topic for a while, but I foolishly believed it to be ‘trivial’ or ‘unimportant’, or even ‘so incredibly stupid that my brain hurt to dwell on it for more than a moment’. But our elected leadership and our guardians of justice have managed to open my stubborn eyes. […]

• August 16, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Social Media

ISLAMABAD: When Max Kelly left his job of the chief security officer at the Facebook in 2010, he just disappeared from the screens of the virtual world – only to be discovered after Edward Snowden rocked the real world with his revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been snooping on the cyber […]

• August 12, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

“Do you use YouTube, Minister?” I asked. “No, because it is not allowed,” she replied sounding a little taken aback. “Do you think your internet experience has been qualitatively compromised since that ban?” I followed up. “Yes, of course, it has,” she replied again. I thanked her for her time and left her office. My […]

• August 8, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Information Technology

LAHORE: The minister for information technology and her secretary again did not appear before the Lahore High Court and the judge again issued notices to them on a petition challenging the ban imposed by the former government last year on the Youtube for exhibiting blasphemous material on it. On Tuesday, the court was informed that […]

• August 8, 2013
• Freedom of Expression

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will take a final decision on re-opening of YouTube in Pakistan after Eid Ul Fitr in accordance with the recommendations prepared by an inter-ministerial committee. According to an announcement made by Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) on Wednesday, the Minister of State for IT&T, Anusha Rahman, has directed to convene […]