As we continue to resist attempts by the Arroyo government to curtail our freedom of expression, we should also extend a hand to those who are in the same or even worse situation than we are in. Just like in Pakistan. Dr. Awab Alvi was in Manila recently for the Freedom of Expression in Asian Cyberspace conference.
6th May 2006, The Don’t Block the Blog team (Dr. Awab Alvi & Omer Alvie) & Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan (formerly known as The Action Group Against Blogspot Ban in Pakistan – AGABBIP) regrets to inform the free world that the Government of Pakistan appears to have resumed the blocking of the entire blogspot domain. Reports have come in from a number of cites around the country that the entire Blogspot domain is blocked in its entirety.
Just recently only three days back, specifically on the 3rd of May, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had lifted the entire ban, allowing all internet users unrestricted surfing to the 10 millions websites hosted on the blogspot.com domain. It appears as if the three day relief was just to appease the United Nations in its annual 3rd of May celebrations for the Freedom of Press.
The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) had initially blocked access to the blogspot domain on the 3rd of March 2006, due to a Supreme Court decision dated 2nd March 2006 instructing the PTA to ban 12 offending websites which highlighted the blasphemous cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In adherence to the Supreme Court ruling, all 12 sites were blocked including one that was hosted on the blogspot domain. But rather than block the offending blogspot website, the PTA blocked the entire domain (www.blogspot.com) which happens to be one of the most popular blog hosting domains hosting approximately upwards of ten million blogs globally.
We strongly oppose this blanket ban on any website, and ask the world to join hands to peacefully protest the censorship of the internet..
The DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG (DBTB) campaign (http://www.help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/ ) was launched by Dr. Awab Alvi and Omer Alvie on 3rd March, 2006 in order to highlight the unfair blanket ban of the blogspot domain and additionally to show support for free internet speech in general.
Approximately at the same time the Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan (formerly known as The Action Group Against Blogspot Ban in Pakistan – AGABBIP) (http://groups.google.com/group/AGABBIP ), a mailing list with dozens of contributing members also was formed to protest this blogspot ban and in support of free speech
The Pakistan internet blockade issue and the resulting efforts of DBTB campaign, along with those in the Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan (AGABBIP) group, were reported in a number of mainstream news media outlets, including the Washington Post, IFEX, Global Voices Online, Voice of America, The News, Reporters Sans Frontiers, Dawn Newspaper and Spider Magazine.
I think gloria alyas pinnochia is in cohorts with the Pakistan government. If not , most probably it (Pakistan) is being inspired by gloria’s suppressing executive orders. O di ba, mabilis makahawa ang virus ng masasama??? Dalhin si Lomibao at Querol sa Pakistan, sila ang papag-arestuhin sa mga blogspot users. Dyan magaling ang dalawang iyan eh..sa illegal arrests. Tingnan ko kung kaya nilang manghuli ng mga Pakistanis. !!!
Today I read in our daily that a software is coming out this month that will defeat any kind of censorship of Blogspot and the Target country is China. It was developed by 3 University of Toronto computer geeks under the grants from NGOs and in cooperation with US counterparts. It utilize a proxy from a country where there is no censorship where a censored PC can run their computers just like the host (proxy). It is supposed to be untreceable and unidentifiable. Since this is developed under grants and mostly from “Free Press” foundations -I believe it will be available free. You’ll be hearing about it soon. I wish I know how to “Link” the article. I’m not a computer geek myself. It is a cover story of Toronto Star Sunday Edition May 7, 2006. Maybe you can google search it. thanks..
Defend freedom of expression.