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Pakistani students blog site blocked
Lahore, June 02, 2008: The government has allegedly blocked a blog hosting website which
contains hundreds of blogs created by Pakistani students especially in
connection with prevailing political and social "unrest" in the country, it was learnt.
Various blogs on blogspot.com, the "blocked" website,
were also providing up-to-date information on protests of students, civil
society and human right activists against the government over the issue of
judiciary.
A number of students, who manage blogs on
the said domain, alleged that the government had banned the blogs hosting
website because most of the blogs contained anti-government material adding the
same website was blocked in January this year too for quite sometime.
A
number of bloggers informed that access to some of the blogs was denied around
3pm on Saturday adding by late night the entire domain was blocked and none of
the blog hosted on the said website could be accessed. They further said a few
days earlier two of the blogs including FASTRising.blogspot.com and
Ale-Xpressed.blogspot.com, managed by some students of FAST-National University
carried a report about prevailing "unrest" in Balochistan province.
They
said the report was in fact based on findings of a visit paid to Balochistan by
a group of students, affiliated with FastRising and Lahore and Islamabad
chapters of the Students Action Committee (SAC), from Punjab. "Different
photographs especially one of wall chalking in Balochistan against Pakistani
government were also pasted on the said blogs", said one of the bloggers adding
the report also carried information about missing Balochs. "The account of
Balochistan journey might have become a reason behind blockage of blogspot
domain", he expressed his apprehensions.
An expert blogger, on condition
of anonymity, said though the blogs were blocked on blogspot adding nevertheless
these blogs could still be accessed while using anonymous proxy servers like
megaproxy.com etc.
It is worth mentioning here that students of various
universities including the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS),
FAST-National University and the Punjab University (PU) have been hosting their
blogs on this website to propagate their point of view about the prevailing
socio-political situation of the country.
Comments and analysis on fight
against terrorism and missing persons are also regular features many blogs
hosted by the blogspot domain.
When contacted Zonal Director of the
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Col (r) Nayyar Hassan denied blocking
of the said website saying as far as
zonal office was concerned no such
step was taken. He asked this scribe to contact PTA spokesperson Khurram Ali
Mehran for further comments. However the spokesperson did not attend call
despite repeated attempts. The News
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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