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| India-Pakistan |
| 'No law allows blocking of websites' |
| 2015-01-21 |
| [DAWN] There is currently no law that allows the Pakistain Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ban websites, even pornographic ones, and the actions of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Evaluation of Websites (IMCEW) are completely unconstitutional, a lawyer who has been fighting a legal battle for the restoration of popular video-sharing website YouTube, said on Tuesday. Yasser Latif Hamdani, who represented Bytes For All in its case against the government of Pakistain in the Lahore High Court, told the audience at Jinnah Institute's Ideas Conclave 2015 that the elephant in the room with regards to freedom of speech in Pakistain was the country's controversial blasphemy laws. He said that the Constitution of the country guaranteed freedom of speech, except when it was in contravention with the glory of Islam, law and order or the sanctity and integrity of Pakistain. Other speakers, including digital rights activist Shahzad Ahmad, activist Jibran Nasir and Dawn dot com Web Editor Jahanzaib Haque, spoke at length about the problems and opportunities afforded by the new media. They explained how social media offered a mirror of society and offered an unadulterated glimpse into the minds of Paks. Mr Ahmad talked about the futility of banning websites and said that it was technically impossible to ban anything on the Internet because there was always a way to get around blocks. Mr Nasir spoke about the power of new media, which he called "Free Media", saying that it had allowed him to put together an awareness campaign that may have cost millions on mainstream media in just Rs50,000. There was no shortage of excitement on the first day of the two-day conclave. In the first session on 'Sustaining Pakistain's Democratic Transition', Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister caused an uproar when he stated openly that Saudi money was causing instability in Pakistain. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 'No law allows blocking of websites' but Net Neutrality will slow down sites we don't like. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2015-01-21 19:23 |