PTA pleads stricter internet censoring

Pakistan

PTA pleads stricter internet censoring

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Pakistan is advertising for companies to install Internet filtering system.

08 March,2012 07:10 pm

The system that could block up to 50 million Web addresses, alarming free speech activists who fear current censorship could become much more widespread.Internet access for Pakistans some 20 million Web users is less restricted than in many countries in Asia and the Arab world, though some pornographic sites and those seen as insulting to Islam are blocked. Others related to separatist activities or army criticism have also been, or continue to be, censored.Few nations have so publicly revealed their plans to censor the Web as Pakistan is doing, however. Last month, the government took out newspaper and Web advertisements asking for companies or institutions to develop the national filtering and blocking system.They are already blocking a lot of Internet content, and now they are going for a massive system that can only limit and control political discourse, said Shahzad Ahmad, the director of Bytes for All Pakistan, which campaigns for Internet freedom. The government has nothing to do with what I choose to look at.The government doesnt currently list the sites it has blocked, or their number, or say who sits on the committee that decides what pages to shut down. Pakistans Telecommunication Authority instructs the countrys 50 Internet Service Providers to block sites. The ISPs, which receive their license from the PTA, are obliged to obey.In November, the PTA ordered cell phone companies to block text messages containing a list of more than 1,500 English words it said were offensive. But the plan was dropped after public ridicule and complaints from cell phone companies about practicality.The plan to censor the Internet comes amid unease over a set of proposals by a media regulatory body aimed at bringing the countrys freewheeling television media under closer government control. With general elections later this year or earlier next, some critics have speculated the government might be trying to cut down on criticism.The media proposals call for television stations not to broadcast programs against the national interest or those that undermine its integrity or solidarity as an independent and sovereign country or contain aspersions against or ridicule the organs of the State.Pakistans Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan denied Wednesday that the government was seeking to curb the media.--AP