If true, the news item posted below from the Associated Press of Pakistan heralds another round of blanket bans on websites in Pakistan. It also reconfirms which groups in the country hold the real power. The momentum is on the side of those who wish to control what we see, hear, read, say and think. In this campaign against anti-Islamic forces, many valuable, innocent and harmless sources of information and entertainment will be blocked at the virtual gates of the land of the pure. And voices of political dissent will also be muted under the guise of preserving the honour of Islam.

We’ve seen it before. In 2006, amid the furore of the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammed (P.B.U.H.), the supreme court of Pakistan ordered the federal government of Pakistan to monitor the Internet for websites publishing the cartoons and demanded that the government, relevant authorities and the attorney general use the laws in place to devise measures to block all objectionable content in order to safeguard “the sentiments of the entire Muslim world.”

Blogspot.com was completely banned for weeks.

Later, the ban hit TypePad as well.

YouTube was blocked in 2008.

And then recently, in May 2010, Facebook was ordered blocked for almost two weeks because of an offensive drawing “contest.” During that purge of objectionable content, Wikipedia, Flickr and, once again, YouTube, along with nearly 800 other websites, were inaccessible to Pakistani Internet users: Internet service providers were ordered to block access to these sites.

Blasphemy and other material aimed to offend and spread hate is indeed objectionable: I do not condone it. But during these times, what is deemed objectionable becomes impossible to define. Sadly, notions of self-censorship don’t find traction here among the dishonest and immature minds pushing to cut us off from the rest of the world – and from progress.

Malik orders immediate blockage of anti Islam websites

ISLAMABAD, Jan 13 (APP): Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Thursday took strong note of those websites and SMS which are propagating anti Islam agenda and ordered blockage of these websites within 24 hours. The Minister ordered Secretary Interior that all those websites should be traced out which are propagating against Islam and said that cases should be registered against the persons who are involved in this act and residing in Pakistan.

Malik also asked Interior Secretary to constitute a committee, comprising representatives of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and Federal Investigation Agency, under the supervision of Additional Secretary Interior to take into consideration the anti Islam propaganda.
He said the committee should give its report in a week positively. Meanwhile, the Federal Minister appealed the youth to inform the government about the websites which are propagating against Islam and Pakistan.

– Associated Press of Pakistan