Internet Freedom - Real Independence

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

Newspapers reported that the IT Minister, Ms. Anusha Rahman, is working with experts to create software to block all objectionable material which would then allow the YouTube ban to be lifted. After 11 months, this is where we are at and we still have it all wrong.

I am the petitioner’s counsel in Bytes for all v. Federation of Pakistan etc before the Lahore High Court where the petitioner argues for unfettered net freedom and an unqualified end to censorship, filtering and regulation on the internet. As petitioner’s counsel I would like to re-state for the people the case we have made before the Honourable High Court in simple English language. It has been necessitated by a malicious defamatory campaign that has been undertaken by certain quarters within the power pro-censorship lobby in our government.  

Anusha Rahman's Faux Pas: "We can ban google if ..."

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

If there was any hope or optimism that one had associated with this current Nawaz Sharif govt, Anusha Rahman's statement widely reported on Sunday ended it. Here is a corporate lawyer with telecom expertise making possibly the most ignorant and illogical statement yet. What then can one expect from the rest of the maja sajas who have come to power in the current regime?

International Case Law on Web/Internet Blocking

BEFORE LAHORE HIGH COURT LAHORE

WP: 958/2013

Bytes for All

v.

Federation of Pakistan etc

A Brief Overview of the Case Law Available On Blocking of Websites Internationally

Respectfully Sheweth:-

That Your Lordship had instructed me to collect existing case law internationally that pertains to our case. The following case law is instructive:-

1.      Yildrim v. Turkey (December 2012)

-        In this case European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that a Court order blocking access to “Google Sites” in Turkey was a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR Law).

-        In 2009 the Denizli Criminal Court ordered the blocking of an Internet site whose owner had been accused of insulting the memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Modern Turkey. The order was issued as a preventive measure in the context of criminal proceedings against the site’s owner.

-        The blocking order was submitted for execution to the Telecommunications Directorate (“TİB”). Shortly afterwards, the TİB asked the court to extend the scope of the order by blocking access to Google Sites, which hosted not only the site in question but also the applicant’s site. The TİB stated that this was the only technical means of blocking the offending site, as its owner lived abroad.