Reporters Without Borders welcomes the ruling that the high court of the southeastern province of Sindh issued in response to a joint petition on 17 April by Bolo Bhi, a Pakistani civil rights group, and other human rights activists in a bid to stop illegal website censorship by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
According to a Bolo Bhi press release, the petition asked the court to ensure that no website was blocked, censored or restricted in violation of articles 4, 9, 10-A, 18, 19, 19-A, 20 and 25 of Pakistan’s Constitution.
After examining the petition, the high court served notice on the federal government and ordered the PTA not to block any website except in accordance with the provisions of the Pakistan Telecommunication Act of 1996. This law regulates the PTA’s control of telecommunications networks and requires, inter alia, that this control be exercised in a fair and transparent manner.
The high court’s ruling, if respected, would make it impossible for the government to introduce any nationwide website filtering system.
While welcoming the ruling, which penalizes the lack of transparency in the PTA’s past website blocking, Reporters Without Borders calls for vigilance because the PTA could try to circumvent it by devising a constitutional procedure based on the anti-blasphemy law and national security provisions.
