Can you really blame them for censoring this?

I mean, really.

A commenter sent me this link which led me to this from the International Freedom of Expression eXchange

Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the decision of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block access to twelve websites that posted the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, which appeared in the Danish daily "Jyllands-Posten".

The PTA, on 28 February 2006, ordered Internet Service Providers to block the website http://www.blogspot.com (or http://www.blogger.com), taking down thousands of weblogs hosted by this tool. "We believe that the decision to ban a website should only ever be taken by a judge, at the end of a fair trial. It is moreover unacceptable that the order to block a site should go through the PTA, which while apparently aiming to shut down one blog, hosted by blogger.com, led to the filtering of all websites sharing the same domain name," said the organisation.

So I must admit my earlier assumption was wrong.  Google/Blogger are apparently not cutting off their users in Pakistan--it is actually the Pakistan ISP.Go to Help-Pakistan.com for more information and a way to show your support.


Technorati Tags: Blogger, Pakistan, censorship

From BBC NEWS:

Instructions were issued to internet service providers across Pakistan on 27 February to block about a dozen websites of various origins.

The ban comes amid protests in several Muslim countries against the cartoons, first published in Denmark last year.

Islamic tradition prohibits depictions of the Prophet.

Bloggers in Pakistan first became aware of the ban on 28 February when they were unable to access a popular blog hosting site, Blogspot.

One of the blocked sites is hosted on Blogspot, which led to the blocking of all web journals hosted on the site.

The Pakistan bloggers found their blogs blocked, even though their blogs are not connected with the cartoons.

And apparently, according to one's internet provider, this has also spilled over into India.  So Google cuts them off from Blogspot, even when they haven't broken the rules.

Recently another eponym user contacted me to ask for help with configuring his blog.  He is in India.  He said he had quit using Blogger/Blogspot because it had been blocked.  I can still access his old blog, however.  It seems that many blogs are  being blocked in India!  (Or, as NPR likes to call it:  India-the-world's-largest-democracy).  He said he had been hearing that many Blogger/Blogspot blogs had recently become inaccessible in both India and Pakistan.

Curious.

Technorati Tags: Blogspot, India, censorship