Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s decision by the
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block access to the
video-sharing website YouTube . Claiming that the proportion of
“non-Islamic objectionable video” had increased on YouTube, the PTA,
the official Internet regulatory body, ordered all Pakistani ISPs to
block access to the website until further notice.
“It should not be up to the PTA to order this
kind of blocking” the press freedom organisation said. “Such a decision
should be taken by the courts, not by a body that is under the
government’s control. Anyway, we regard this measure as
disproportionate ans we find that the idea to respect a proportion of
videos is opposed to the primary principle of sharing online videos
website”.
Don’t Block the Blog ( http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/
), a group of Pakistani bloggers who combat censorship, thinks the
blockage order was prompted by two videos. One is anti-Islamic ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3s8jtvvg00
). The other shows voters describing the fraud they witnessed during the parliamentary elections on 18 February ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TPUHHFky38
), which ended up being won by the opposition Pakistan People’s Party.
