342
Pakistan
PTCL decided that ISPs would not be forced to buy bandwidth from the PTCL and
were free to choose from third-party providers.
11 A second major company in Pakistan ’ s Internet infrastructure is TransWorld, which owns and operates Pakistan ’ s fi rst
and only privately owned submarine fi ber optic cable system, the TW1, which has a
capacity of 1.28 terabytes, more than is currently necessary for the nation.
12
Internet fi ltering in Pakistan is regulated by the Pakistan Telecommunications
Authority (PTA) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under the direction of the
government, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT).
On September 2, 2006, the MoIT announced the creation of the Inter-Ministerial
Committee for the Evaluation of Web sites (IMCEW), responsible for monitoring and
blocking Web sites containing blasphemous, pornographic, or antistate material.
13 The
IMCEW is administered by the secretary of the MoIT and is composed of representatives from the MoIT, the PTA, the Ministry of the Interior, the cabinet, and other
security agencies. Directives to block content are typically handed by the government
or the Supreme Court through the IMCEW to the MoIT and PTA, who then pass the
orders to individual ISPs. However, because there is no specifi c legal framework, directives can be given directly to the PTA and ISPs to block material without going through
the IMCEW. The Deregulation Facilitation Unit is responsible for addressing the grievances that Internet users may have with this censorship body.
14
Internet censorship in Pakistan has received worldwide attention because of the
pervasive infl uence of religious groups. The government ’ s often quick moves to fi lter
certain material can be considered rash.
In 2006, the Supreme Court issued a directive that ordered the PTA to block access
to 12 Web sites that included “ blasphemous ” cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad. Among this banned content was a Web site that was hosted on a Blogspot
domain. Rather than blocking the offending Blogspot Web site, the PTA blocked access
to the entire domain for approximately two months.
15 At the same time, the Supreme
Court ordered police to register cases of publishing or posting of blasphemous images
under article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, under which blasphemy or defamation
of the Prophet Mohammad is punishable by death.
16
In 2008, the government issued an order to ISPs to block a URL and three IP
addresses associated with a YouTube video clip of Geert Wilders, the Dutch lawmaker,
considered “ blasphemous ” by the Pakistani government.
17 Because the PIE was unable
to conduct a URL-specifi c block, it performed an IP-wide block, which had the unanticipated consequence of rendering the entire YouTube domain inaccessible to much
of the world for approximately two hours.
18
In May 2010, the PTA ordered ISPs to block Facebook, YouTube, and certain Flickr
and Wikipedia pages when an Internet user created a Facebook page entitled “ Post
Drawings of the Prophet Mohammad Day. ”
19 The ban was ordered as a result of the
Pakistan
PTCL decided that ISPs would not be forced to buy bandwidth from the PTCL and
were free to choose from third-party providers.
11 A second major company in Pakistan ’ s Internet infrastructure is TransWorld, which owns and operates Pakistan ’ s fi rst
and only privately owned submarine fi ber optic cable system, the TW1, which has a
capacity of 1.28 terabytes, more than is currently necessary for the nation.
12
Internet fi ltering in Pakistan is regulated by the Pakistan Telecommunications
Authority (PTA) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under the direction of the
government, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT).
On September 2, 2006, the MoIT announced the creation of the Inter-Ministerial
Committee for the Evaluation of Web sites (IMCEW), responsible for monitoring and
blocking Web sites containing blasphemous, pornographic, or antistate material.
13 The
IMCEW is administered by the secretary of the MoIT and is composed of representatives from the MoIT, the PTA, the Ministry of the Interior, the cabinet, and other
security agencies. Directives to block content are typically handed by the government
or the Supreme Court through the IMCEW to the MoIT and PTA, who then pass the
orders to individual ISPs. However, because there is no specifi c legal framework, directives can be given directly to the PTA and ISPs to block material without going through
the IMCEW. The Deregulation Facilitation Unit is responsible for addressing the grievances that Internet users may have with this censorship body.
14
Internet censorship in Pakistan has received worldwide attention because of the
pervasive infl uence of religious groups. The government ’ s often quick moves to fi lter
certain material can be considered rash.
In 2006, the Supreme Court issued a directive that ordered the PTA to block access
to 12 Web sites that included “ blasphemous ” cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad. Among this banned content was a Web site that was hosted on a Blogspot
domain. Rather than blocking the offending Blogspot Web site, the PTA blocked access
to the entire domain for approximately two months.
15 At the same time, the Supreme
Court ordered police to register cases of publishing or posting of blasphemous images
under article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, under which blasphemy or defamation
of the Prophet Mohammad is punishable by death.
16
In 2008, the government issued an order to ISPs to block a URL and three IP
addresses associated with a YouTube video clip of Geert Wilders, the Dutch lawmaker,
considered “ blasphemous ” by the Pakistani government.
17 Because the PIE was unable
to conduct a URL-specifi c block, it performed an IP-wide block, which had the unanticipated consequence of rendering the entire YouTube domain inaccessible to much
of the world for approximately two hours.
18
In May 2010, the PTA ordered ISPs to block Facebook, YouTube, and certain Flickr
and Wikipedia pages when an Internet user created a Facebook page entitled “ Post
Drawings of the Prophet Mohammad Day. ”
19 The ban was ordered as a result of the