Warped thoughts and blocking of minds
Courtesy:- Kamila Hyat
The ongoing process by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to block ‘objectionable’ websites is taking on ridiculous dimensions. Over 13,000 websites have already been blocked, while the process continues – with the interior minister stating that ‘un-Islamic’ websites would be closed, denying access to them to Internet users.
The question of quite what constitutes an un-Islamic website has been left very vague, while even the interpretation of ‘pornographic’ sites is at best hazy – given that what is acceptable to one adult may not be to another.
To add to the ludicrous situation, we have had a 15-year-old boy, with help from unnamed friends, identify no less than 78.000 ‘pornographic’ sites to the PTA. No one appears to have asked him – or his parents – what he was doing accessing websites restricted to adults.
The definition of what is pornographic is also absurd, with even some sites carrying film reviews blocked off by our over-zealous censorship team, which appears to act in an entirely arbitrary fashion, with little obvious logic or clear thinking involved.
The message carrying the bleak information that a particular website has been blocked on PTA directives is beginning to pop up more and more frequently on screens.
More seasoned Net users can of course in many cases get around these blocks by using proxy sites – the nature of the Internet makes it very difficult to completely shut down information.
Yet since 2006 websites which include some of the most popular blogging sites, Facebook and Youtube have all been banned, mercifully for short periods – but even so throwing users into complete panic.
Ironically enough, while all this continues, sites preaching hatred of all kinds, including those run by extremist forces continue to function.
Apparently advising people to kill blasphemers, suggesting that Ahmadis need to be ostracised or pushing for ‘jihad’ in all its various forms do not strike the authorities as having a negative impact on society.
The impact of extremism on our society and on our youth is apparently not a major concern. Indeed no attempt has been made to limit the use of modern media to contain extremism. CDs and videos still flood some markets, and are circulated at mosques and distributed among people.
Even FM radio stations run by pro-Taliban groups in many places continue to operate, while what had seemed like a sensible government attempt to set up radio stations in four locations in the tribal belt has floundered because of the failure to give the local people a voice and instead use the broadcasting channels merely as a means to air government propaganda.
As a result, the channels gained no popular appeal at all, one in South Waziristan has already closed down and people prefer to listen in to the Pashto language services of foreign stations such as the BBC, VOA or Radio China.
This failure to counter the success of Taliban-run FM stations is something the managers of our information policy need to answer for.
These managers must also tell us just quite what they hope to achieve by shutting down thousands of websites. These include those run by Baloch and Sindhi nationalists – with the strategy to this effect first put in place during the Musharraf years not reversed since 2008.
In fact, more and more websites have gone behind the iron curtain that the PTA is apparently attempting to draw before reality and hide it from people. Even comparatively moderate Baloch websites narrating the history and culture of the province have now vanished.
This can of course only expand the resentment felt in the province and cut it off further from the mainstream of the country pushing it into complete isolation.
What no one seems to realise is that such crude censorship will have an extremely adverse impact on society. The ‘new media’ had given many groups a small but important voice allowing them to gain a small hold within a society which accepts only conformity to established rules.
Sites run by those who openly declare themselves to be atheists or agnostics have come in fact as a first indication of how many such individuals exist in our heavily ‘Islamised’ society. Of course, those posting on these sites do not reveal their real names or identities.
But simply the opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts may open thinking a little and pushes aside the tight boundaries we have erected to close minds.
The same of course applies to other groups that have little opportunity to occupy public space, such as gay and lesbian groups. The fact that the Internet has provided them a
chance to make their views heard indicates what an important platform it is. It can play a huge role in building tolerance and acceptance for non-conventional ideas.
This is all the more so in a situation where we have no real ‘alternative’ media as far as print or television goes.
As is happening in many places, the media is in fact in ideological terms becoming more and more uniform, closing out those who wish to express a different view or opinion. In such an environment, the Internet plays a still more important role. It must be allowed to continue to do so at all costs.
Closing down websites and restricting what we can access will only increase the resentment and frustration which runs deep everywhere in the country. What they need is more places where people can freely express their opinions.
The whole policy of ‘enforced censorship’ is badly warped, and goes against the idea of adult freedom to choose what they read or how they think. The PTA actions will only make matters far worse over the months ahead.
It needs to be re-thought carefully and the tendency to close down more and more sights brought to an end. Otherwise, all this will lead us to adding to the multitude of problems we already face in our society, and finding a resolution for them will become even harder.
Morality cannot be enforced or created through bans, this can only be done by inculcating values and the ability to think in people. This is of course a far harder task than locking down sites on the Internet.
The ongoing process by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to block ‘objectionable’ websites is taking on ridiculous dimensions. Over 13,000 websites have already been blocked, while the process continues – with the interior minister stating that ‘un-Islamic’ websites would be closed, denying access to them to Internet users.
The question of quite what constitutes an un-Islamic website has been left very vague, while even the interpretation of ‘pornographic’ sites is at best hazy – given that what is acceptable to one adult may not be to another.
To add to the ludicrous situation, we have had a 15-year-old boy, with help from unnamed friends, identify no less than 78.000 ‘pornographic’ sites to the PTA. No one appears to have asked him – or his parents – what he was doing accessing websites restricted to adults.
The definition of what is pornographic is also absurd, with even some sites carrying film reviews blocked off by our over-zealous censorship team, which appears to act in an entirely arbitrary fashion, with little obvious logic or clear thinking involved.
The message carrying the bleak information that a particular website has been blocked on PTA directives is beginning to pop up more and more frequently on screens.
More seasoned Net users can of course in many cases get around these blocks by using proxy sites – the nature of the Internet makes it very difficult to completely shut down information.
Yet since 2006 websites which include some of the most popular blogging sites, Facebook and Youtube have all been banned, mercifully for short periods – but even so throwing users into complete panic.
Ironically enough, while all this continues, sites preaching hatred of all kinds, including those run by extremist forces continue to function.
Apparently advising people to kill blasphemers, suggesting that Ahmadis need to be ostracised or pushing for ‘jihad’ in all its various forms do not strike the authorities as having a negative impact on society.
The impact of extremism on our society and on our youth is apparently not a major concern. Indeed no attempt has been made to limit the use of modern media to contain extremism. CDs and videos still flood some markets, and are circulated at mosques and distributed among people.
Even FM radio stations run by pro-Taliban groups in many places continue to operate, while what had seemed like a sensible government attempt to set up radio stations in four locations in the tribal belt has floundered because of the failure to give the local people a voice and instead use the broadcasting channels merely as a means to air government propaganda.
As a result, the channels gained no popular appeal at all, one in South Waziristan has already closed down and people prefer to listen in to the Pashto language services of foreign stations such as the BBC, VOA or Radio China.
This failure to counter the success of Taliban-run FM stations is something the managers of our information policy need to answer for.
These managers must also tell us just quite what they hope to achieve by shutting down thousands of websites. These include those run by Baloch and Sindhi nationalists – with the strategy to this effect first put in place during the Musharraf years not reversed since 2008.
In fact, more and more websites have gone behind the iron curtain that the PTA is apparently attempting to draw before reality and hide it from people. Even comparatively moderate Baloch websites narrating the history and culture of the province have now vanished.
This can of course only expand the resentment felt in the province and cut it off further from the mainstream of the country pushing it into complete isolation.
What no one seems to realise is that such crude censorship will have an extremely adverse impact on society. The ‘new media’ had given many groups a small but important voice allowing them to gain a small hold within a society which accepts only conformity to established rules.
Sites run by those who openly declare themselves to be atheists or agnostics have come in fact as a first indication of how many such individuals exist in our heavily ‘Islamised’ society. Of course, those posting on these sites do not reveal their real names or identities.
But simply the opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts may open thinking a little and pushes aside the tight boundaries we have erected to close minds.
The same of course applies to other groups that have little opportunity to occupy public space, such as gay and lesbian groups. The fact that the Internet has provided them a
chance to make their views heard indicates what an important platform it is. It can play a huge role in building tolerance and acceptance for non-conventional ideas.
This is all the more so in a situation where we have no real ‘alternative’ media as far as print or television goes.
As is happening in many places, the media is in fact in ideological terms becoming more and more uniform, closing out those who wish to express a different view or opinion. In such an environment, the Internet plays a still more important role. It must be allowed to continue to do so at all costs.
Closing down websites and restricting what we can access will only increase the resentment and frustration which runs deep everywhere in the country. What they need is more places where people can freely express their opinions.
The whole policy of ‘enforced censorship’ is badly warped, and goes against the idea of adult freedom to choose what they read or how they think. The PTA actions will only make matters far worse over the months ahead.
It needs to be re-thought carefully and the tendency to close down more and more sights brought to an end. Otherwise, all this will lead us to adding to the multitude of problems we already face in our society, and finding a resolution for them will become even harder.
Morality cannot be enforced or created through bans, this can only be done by inculcating values and the ability to think in people. This is of course a far harder task than locking down sites on the Internet.
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