Pakistan is advertising for companies to install an Internet filtering 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 Pakistan’s 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 criticism of the armed forces 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 does not currently list the sites it has blocked, or their number or say who sits on the committee that decides what pages to shut down. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) instructs the country’s 50 Internet service providers (ISP) to block sites. The ISPs, which receive their license from the PTA, are obliged to obey.
In November last year, the PTA ordered cellphone companies to block text messages containing a list of more than 1,500 English words it said were offensive. However, the plan was dropped after public ridicule and complaints from cellphone 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 country’s 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.” Pakistani Minister of Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan denied on Wednesday that the government was seeking to curb the media.
“We want to see the media growing. We want to strengthen it,” Awan said, emphasizing that the proposals were just that, and the government would not implement them without the media’s consent.
The government advertisements state it wants a system capable of shutting down up to 50 million Web addresses in multiple languages with a processing delay of not less than one millisecond.
The head of Pakistan’s ISP association, Wahajus Siraj, said he supported the proposed system, saying his ISP and others in the association did not have the time or money to take down the sites. He also said rights activists had nothing to worry about.
“They don’t fully understanding the concept of it,” Siraj said. “This is not new censorship. It’s making the manual system more efficient. I respect their point of view, but decent freedom of speech should not be blocked.”
Siraj, who sits on the board of the government-run technology fund seeking proposals for the blocking system, said there had been many expressions of interest to create the system, including from two Western firms. He declined to name them.
US technology companies have been criticized for helping foreign governments censor the Internet to their citizens. Cisco Systems Inc, which makes networking equipment that could be used in official efforts to monitor and control Internet use, is often cited; the company insists it does not provide any government with any special capabilities and cannot control what its customers do with the products.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia