The Express Tribune
The Toronto Sun newspaper’s website has been possibly blocked by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and is no longer accessible in Pakistan.
The Canadian newspaper is an English daily that draws a relatively small readership from Pakistan. It reports that, “Up until January 16 this year the Toronto Sun had recorded 63, 814 visits in the 12 months to that date in Pakistan. Then nothing from January 17 onwards except a sole visit on January 19.”
Attempts by The Express Tribune to access the site were unsuccessful with the requests returning an “118 connection timed out” error.
The Pakistan High Commission in Ottawa neither confirmed nor denied the censorship of the website, Toronto Sun reported. It added that their press counsel would make a statement on February 4.
Press counsel Nazia Khalid, while speaking to The Express Tribune, denied any such planned statement. She said a correspondent from the Toronto Sun had contacted her to inquire about their website possibly being banned in Pakistan, but she replied that she had no information on it.
Khalid further added that, “The government of Pakistan wouldn’t do such a thing.”
However, when pressed, she said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the site had been blocked in Pakistan.
The PTA has become increasingly aggressive in blocking websites in the country. The entire website of Rolling Stone, a pop-culture and politics magazine, has been blocked since July 2011. A PTA spokesperson confirmed that the website has been blocked but said he did not know why it had been done so.
The popular video sharing website YouTube has been blocked since September 17, 2012 in efforts to block access to sacrilegious film Innocence of Muslims after violent protests erupted across the Muslim world.
Last month interior minister Rehman Malik hinted that the Pakistani government is working implementing a new internet filter for blocking blasphemous or offensive material, after which YouTube would be unblocked.
No comments:
Post a Comment