Pakistani journalists, who have taken on military leaders and been beaten and jailed in the pursuit of a free press, say they now face a form of censorship that is more subtle but no less chilling, one spearheaded by the security services. Journalists and
By Ansar Abbasi ISLAMABAD: The Censorship Committee on Defence Planning (CCDP) has been revived by the government after 18 years to protect the “national interest” being threatened, particularly by the unregulated and unchecked electronic media of the country. Sources said that the CCDP, which met on Dec 16, 2015, after a long gap of 18 years, decided to regulate the
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani journalists and media houses during the year 2015 saw dramatic increase in censorship and silent, but potent crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression during the incumbent democratic setup which was never seen in previous civilian set ups. Freedom Network, an independent
KARACHI: As the National Assembly gears up to debate the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PEC 2015), a UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression has urged legislators to
The blockage of the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, which was shut down in Pakistan on September 17, 2012, to prevent access to a blasphemous video continues. Video excerpts from the aforementioned movie sparked protests and violence across the Muslim world. During one of the spates of violence, the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed along with three of
In March 2014, Pakistani columnist Raza Rumi was injured in a gun attack that killed his driver. Weeks later, Hamid Mir, star journalist of Geo TV, Pakistan’s biggest TV station, was shot six times. Luckily, both survived, and managed to avoid becoming part of a bleak statistic. Since 1992, 30 journalists have been murdered in Pakistan; 28 with impunity. Against
Karachi: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the information technology secretary, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman and others on Tuesday on a petition challenging the ban on video-sharing website YouTube. Saadullah Khan and others petitioners submitted that the PTA had banned over 1,000 websites including YouTube since September 2012 because of blasphemous contents. They submitted that the censorship of
Last month, we harshly criticized Twitter for responding to questionable legal orders from Russia and Pakistan to take down content. We argued that the company that once called itself “the free speech wing of the free speech party” had caved in the midst of corporate expansion. We are therefore pleased to see that Twitter has reversed course on its approach
GUJRANWALA: Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Afzal Butt has warned that the newspaper industry workers would not tolerate any move against the freedom of press and urged that all extrajudicial and illegal tactics against the press should end forthwith. He said the PFUJ had decided to uphold the freedom of press and would not hesitate in rendering any
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