(March 31st 2006 13:00) The Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) controlled by Pakistan Telcommuncation Authority (PTA) has started to block the entire domain of Wikipedia. Wikipedia can be considered to be the single largest storehouse of knowledge having 3.5 million pages hosted on the domain. It seems as if the authorities are extending their censorship on free speach to now implement a Censorship on Education by blocking off the wikipedia website. Please join us to protest against this new development in Pakistan.
Update: March 31st 2006 20:00 - It appears that the blockade of wikipedia website has now been lifted. So far there is no official word as to the reason for this temporary ban. We hope wikipedia now remains unblocked.
Published in The News written by Ethan Casey
View from the West
I intended to write this week about George Bush’s visit to Pakistan, but I’ve found a more compelling topic, about which more below. First, allow me to note how strange and disorienting it can be to write a topical column, as events rush forward from day to day under the looming shadow of one’s deadline. One doesn’t know, sometimes, when to write: is the suicide bombing at the hotel in Karachi this week’s ‘hook’, or is it the more recent development of Bush’s having inked a nuclear agreement with India but not with Pakistan? I will have things to say about these issues, probably next week.
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Published in The Washington Post by Jeff Morley
“Americans will support the Pakistani people as they take further steps toward democracy,” declared President Bush at a state dinner in Pakistan last Saturday.
One of those steps, say two Pakistani bloggers, would be to restore the country’s access a huge number of blogs on the Internet. As Bush spoke, Pakistan’s Internet service providers (ISP) were blocking Pakistanis from viewing of many blogs on the grounds that a handful of them displayed the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that many Muslims regard as blasphemous.
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Written by: Mehreen Zahra-Malik
Publihsed in: The Friday Times
The government’s enthusiasm to block sites hosting the blasphemous cartoons has led to the demise of blogging in Pakistan
The Danish cartoon controversy has claimed yet another victim here: Pakistani bloggers. This is how it goes.
On February 27, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) directed all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block a dozen websites of various origins on which Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) controversial caricatures were either reproduced or which had invited the media to reproduce the cartoons. One of the sites PTA declared ‘offensive’ and subsequently blocked was being hosted on the domain of Google Inc’s international blogging service, www.blogspot.com. This domain hosts more than four million other blogs (web journals) and websites. While aiming to block a few blogs, PTA has ended up blocking access to thousands of other blogs and websites on the host.
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Joining hands to Condemn Censorship of
Blogs in Pakistan
LAUNCHED BY THE ALVI-E TEAM (Awab Alvi & Omer Alvie) on March 3rd 2006, this is an online campaign to support free speech of Pakistani bloggers and internet free speech in general. Support our cause by copying the banner code (below) to your web site.
Since 28th February (2006), Pakistani Bloggers’ Freedom of Speech has been under attack by some, if not all, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who has chosen to block all blogs hosted on the blogspot.com domain. Political pressure groups have protested to the government to block those web sites displaying the controversial cartoon images of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) that were hosted on the net. But instead of blocking specific sites, ISPs have simply blacklisted the entire domain, causing thousands of blogs to be inaccessible for viewing in Pakistan.
It is our point of view, that any censorship of blogs is unacceptable, be it a few offensive sites inciting a hateful stereotype, or hundreds of blogs protesting controversial caricatures or even the thousands of sites that remain indifferent to the issue.
Sign the Petetion - No Internet Censorship in Pakistan
DIGG the story at Digg.com - Blogspot.com Censored in Pakistan
News Reports Appearing Globally Fighting for the Cause
We as Pakstani Bloggers object to this action and would like to request you to join in our cause and display either one of the banners condemning this action and appealing for an immediate change.
Help-Pakistan.com is a project that was launched soon after the October 8th earthquake that shook most of northern Pakistan and parts of India causing a loss of more than 78,000 lives and making 3.3 million people homeless. It is the brainchild of Dr. Awab Alvi, who realized, soon after the earthquake, the need for an online system to assist individual international donors.
To date we have raised upwards of $8000, close to half a million Rupees, which have been transferred to The Citizens Foundation’s ‘Earthquake Relief Fund’. The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is a nongovernmental organization that is committed to providing quality education to the underprivileged childern of Pakistan. After the earthquake, however, TCF launched a program to build several thousand homes for the people who have been rendered homeless by the earthquake. Click here to have an overview of TCF’s efforts.
There are 3 ways you can help the EQ victims:
1) Donate
2) Spread the word
3) If you are a designer you can help us design merchandise
