For those living in Pakistan, censorship of the media is something known all too well. Whether it be tv, radio, journalism, or the internet nothing can get past the government's censors. The Pakistani government has placed laws against any material they find blasphemous or sexual.
Back in September of 2008, Zafar Abbas, the Resident Newspaper editor for Islamabad, talks about why there is a need for censorship of the different medias in Pakistan:
Just as Abbas said, the issue of what can and cannot be put out to the public by news papers and television stations is still a debatable issue in Pakistan. Yet, they want to call themselves a free country which for many, I would believe, is very contradictory. This issue they are trying so hard to fix, will cause an uproar by itself.
While Pakistan is less restricted than other Asian and Middle Eastern countries when it comes to web access, in recent news, their government has proposed to block many internet websites. According to the New York Times, the Pakistan government is following China's lead with their own "Great Firewall". They are requesting that internet providers block access to certain websites with an automatic filtering system.
The project will cost no less than 10 million dollars and will wind up blocking nearly 50 million URL's
Many free speech activists are shocked, for one, that the government is so forthcoming about the plan and second, appalled that the government is going through with it. Shahzad Ahmad, the director of Bytes for All Pakistan commented: "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... The government has nothing to do with what I choose to look at."
Activists against censorship feel that the government is going backwards to when the General Pervez Musharraf ruled. Chief executive Sana Saleem of Bolo Bhi a campaign group against restrictions on the Internet, says that the Pakistani government is trying too much to become like China, but what they fail to realize is that "China is an autocratic regime and we are a democracy.”
As I said previously, while Pakistan likes to call themselves an independent and free nation, this occurring event shows to outsiders that they are just the opposite. No free nation would need a national web blocker.