Since the very begin of YouTube blockage, Govt of Pakistan (Ministry of IT and Telecom) is getting the issue very non-seriously.
Anusha Rehman Khan, Minister of State for Telecom & IT and Secretary IT were expected to appear before the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday (August 1, 2013) for upgrading court about their initiatives to take care of the problem of YouTube and the access to blasphemous content in Pakistan.
An additional secretary for the minister appeared before the court, said that, she couldn’t come as she was busy in making IT policy for the country whereas, Secretary IT had an eye infection that did not allow him to attend the court today.
Although, court has summoned both on August 7 for the same reason but it was observed during the hearing that government has not been able to resolve the issue of blasphemous content since September 2012, the month YouTube was blocked by then PM-Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
A similar case in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on August 1, 2013 revealed government’s intention of keeping the YouTube blocked when it was told to the honorable court by Additional Secretary of Ministry of IT and Telecom Muhammad Ijaz Mian that it was in the interest of public to keep the video sharing website blocked.
He said, Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) had reviewed the matter on February 8, 2013 and found out that public’s stance was same and the situation did not change on blasphemous content despite YouTube was blocked. And since, there was no technical solution at the hands of Ministry of IT to ensure the 100 percent blockage of controversial URLs, therefore, it was decided, keeping in view the security situation and the sentiments of public to continue with the decision of blocking the YouTube.
PHC was told that Ministry had issued directives to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for finding a state of the art technological solution to overcome the problem but the authority has not responded positively on the issue.
While hiding its failure, ministry representative told PHC that it had contacted Google administration to remove the content from its server which the search engine giant refused on the grounds that it worked under the laws of United States and existing law in Pakistan did not force it to fulfil the demands of Pakistani government.
Google has already told the ministry to pass intermediary legal protection legislation in the country. A worldwide phenomenon, which will make the search engine comply by the local rules and regulations.
On the other hand, Lahore High Court has stated that it is not a solution to block the entire website which also has very valuable information for general public. There should be an intelligent solution to deal with the menace of anti-social and blasphemous content instead of blocking the entire website.
The court clearly stated that information flow cannot be controlled in this way and there should be self-regulation in every house as well. A worst action would be to block the whole internet in the country that will also severe links to the outside world.Lahore High Court further said that brilliant remedy and control was needed from the government and summoned the minister of state for IT & Telecom and secretary IT on August 7 in this regard.
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