New Internet censorship in Pakistan aimed at the Danish cartoons of Muhammed has inflicted more collateral damage than a wayward JDAM. All Google-hosted blogs have now been banned (thanks, SloganMurugan):
Pakistan telecom authorities have blocked several websites inviting people to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad… Bloggers in Pakistan became first became aware of the ban on 28 February when they were unable to access a popular blog hosting site, Blogspot. One of the blocked sites is hosted on [Google] Blogspot, which led to the blocking of all web journals hosted on the site… They say they have still been able to edit and update their blogs, but not able to read them… [Link]… the govt. must have ordered local ISP’s to block certain websites. All the major ISP’s in Pakistan are blocking weblogs hosted at blogspot.com. [Link]
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p>Blogger, the editing half, was spared the axe. There’s been no official announcement, although last week Pakistan’s highest court started ordering ISPs to block sites carrying the cartoons:
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the government to block internet sites displaying sacrilegious cartoons and called explanation from authorities concerned as to why these sites had not been blocked earlier… Two petitions were filed… seeking complete blockage of sites showing blasphemous depictions and… seeking registration of cases under blasphemy. [Link]
Any secular democracy’s least-favorite phrase: ‘injures religious sentiments.’ Disheartened Pakistani bloggers are blaming bureaucratic ineptness and going around the problem via proxies. With respect to freedom of speech, Pakistan is not China:
Pakistani bloggers agree the blocking of Blogspot cannot be intentional… [Link]
It’s not the Pakistan government’s first attempt at censorship:
Certain Indian weblogs have been banned for some months now… [Link]
A Karachi blogger talks about the ineffective Bollywood blockade:
Bollywood movies have more than 90% of the Pakistan market. Some things, like banning movies, are far beyond the reach of [government], even a dictatorship… the official reason is that allowing Indian films will destroy Pakistani cinema. [Government] policies achieved that goal a long time ago, so no one really knows why the ban still exists. The old chestnuts about morality, ethics, hate for they neighbour, Islam, loss of advertising revenues… are all trotted out depending on the occasion…
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p>Sources said that approval of ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ will come soon as Musharraf… [checks for] Satanic verses and black magic — which is commonly used to ensnare… naïve Pakistani viewers… [Link]
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p>The double-super-secret ban reminds me of Bill Clinton’s Pakistan trip, in and out in less than six hours on an unmarked plane. Silent but deadly, commando-style.
Global Voices has the roundup.
Related posts: ‘The Internet has crashed’, The Danish cartoon controversy
Speaking of censorsing voices, Islamabad will be pretty much under curfew when Bush visits, with schools, offices and pretty much everything else shutting down for the day. Imran Khan’s under house arrest in Islamabad (for a day) for announcing that he intended to participate in a protest rally against Bush. So much for moving towards democracy! The overreaction from Musharraf’s govt is a little weird though, since the MMA is unlikely to embarass Musharraf during Bush’s visit – especially since he did allow them to blow off steam for the cartoon protests.
This reminds me of the time in 2003 when the Indian govt briefly blocked access to all of yahoo-groups because of a tiny (82 member) group espousing secessionist ideas :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/24/india_blocks_yahoo_groups/
In the article that ashvin posted:
Ahaha. If that’s not freedom of expression, I don’t know what is.
Wonder if Old Slick Willy is used the same unmarked plane for his Dubai lobbying too….
Mhmm, hail South Asia, where all 1.5 billion of us behave in the exact same manner. After all, what’s the world’s greatest democracy when you can have an integrated and freedom-loving South Asia, eh?