[kictanet] Interesting read- Pakistan to block face book....

[Grace Bomu]

Here is Article 19's Reaction

*Pakistan: Freedom of Expression on Internet Must be Respected*

Decisions by a Pakistani High Court to ban numerous international
websites and services violate international human rights law.

The Lahore High Court on 19 May ordered the Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority to block the social network website
Facebook and hundreds of other pages in response to a Facebook user
calling for an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. The court later
ordered the blocking of YouTube for the same reason. The ban has
resulted in numerous other websites also being affected, including
Flickr, Wikipedia, Google, Twitter, some parts of the BBC, and
accessing the internet through the Blackberry mobile service. The
Express Tribune has reported that the total number of blocked websites
has reached 1,000.

Participants of a media forum held yesterday in Karachi to discuss
the ban were attacked by protesters accusing the organisers of
blasphemy.

Previously, Pakistan has banned access to YouTube, Blogspot and
Flickr, along with sites relating to corruption by political
officials, human rights abuses by the army, nationalist political
parties and religious minorities. An attempt to block YouTube in 2008
resulted in most of Pakistan being cut off from the internet after
Pakistan Telecom rerouted all YouTube visitors worldwide to a false
site, leading to a massive overload of traffic and YouTube being
blocked worldwide for a short time. A cybercrime law adopted in 2008
authorises the death penalty for some offenses.

These expansive blocks of internet content violate Article 19 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states
that all individuals have a fundamental human right to “to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of
frontiers … through any other media of his choice.” Pakistan
signed the ICCPR in 2008.

Any curbs on the right to free expression must be strictly limited.
The curb must be provided by a law which is clear and understandable,
the interference must pursue a legitimate aim as set out under Article
19(3) of the ICCPR, and the restrictions must be necessary and
proportionate. The blocking of millions of pages is clearly
disproportionate.

“Leaders of countries around the world must understand that speech
and information in new media such as the internet are equally
protected under the fundamental right to freedom of expression,”
says Dr Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director . “It is not
lawful to ban millions of pages to prevent access to a few.”

ARTICLE 19 calls on the government to remove all blocks that are not
justifiable under international human rights law and to reform
legislation that allows for blocks to be imposed without due
consideration of the freedom of expression.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

•       For more information please contact: David Banisar, Senior Legal
Counsel, ARTICLE 19, banisar at article19.org
<mailto:banisar at article19.org>
 +44 20 7324 2500

On 20 May 2010 12:53, Judy Okite <judyokite at gmail.com> wrote:

> Very radical move, I would say, but is it the right one?
>
> but why,block it until the 31st of May????
>
> can the internet be made to FORGET?????
>
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100519/ap_on_hi_te/as_pakistan_facebook_12
>
>
> Kind Regards,
> --
> “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and
> what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
> Kofi Annan
>
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-- 
Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu)
+254721898732
+254736091242
Kenya
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