Pakistan's Web Ban Is Part of Broader Crackdown

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (May 22) -- This nation's ban on Facebook and YouTube this week has reopened a fierce debate on freedom of information in a country that seemed on its way to being a developing-world leader in promoting citizen access to the Web.

The ban, which also covers Wikipedia and Flickr, comes after a Facebook group declared May 20 to be "Draw Muhammad Day." But critics say that was a convenient excuse for broader moves to curtail access to what has been a largely uncensored Web in Pakistan. The International Telecommunications Union estimates that 18.5 million of the nation's 175 million citizens have Internet access -- a higher penetration rate than that of Pakistan's immediate neighbors.

The vast majority of Muslims consider any image of the prophet Muhammad a serious insult to their beliefs. But while other Muslim countries reacted with restraint to what many saw as an open call to deride Islam's most sacred religious figure, Pakistan's response has been swift and uncompromising, reflecting a nervousness about information flows in a country gripped by war and instability.

"There is a sense of vulnerability in the political establishment at the moment," says Iqbal Khattak, the Pakistan representative for the international media rights organization Reporters Without Borders. "The bans on YouTube and Facebook may be specifically inspired by their perceived attack on Islam, but there is also a broader political climate of fear of digital information among Pakistan's political elite."

Though media censorship is nothing new in Pakistan, this most recent attack on the Internet has taken many by surprise. The end of the military rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf was widely expected to usher in a more open approach to information, but it hasn't. Reporters Without Borders ranks Pakistan 159th out of 175 countries in its 2009 Press Freedom Index.

The government of President Asif Ali Zardari appears to have put reining in new media at the forefront of a new censorship campaign. In July 2009, it quietly passed an amendment to the Cyber Crimes Act, making it illegal to poke fun at the president. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, a member of Zardari's inner circle, said at the time that the strengthened law would eliminate "ill-motivated and concocted stories through e-mails and text messages against the civilian leadership."

Malik was convicted on charges of graft earlier this month by the Lahore High Court, the same court that approved the ban on Facebook and YouTube. He was pardoned by Zardari on Monday.

The court's decision, Khattak says, highlights the mounting sensitivity to the Internet not just among the country's military and intelligence services but increasingly within its democratic institutions.

Foreign journalists are under pressure by Pakistan's intelligence agencies and face being denied visas if they are judged to be detrimental to Pakistan's image in the world. Pakistan authorities refused to renew the visa last week of the correspondent for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which sponsored a controversial collection of Mohammad cartoons in 2005.

Even aid agencies, which endeavor to stay aloof from Pakistan's political arena, are under the microscope. An Australian aid worker, requesting anonymity, recently told AOL News that intelligence officials have shadowed him over the course of his research on the plight of Pakistan's poor.

"Exchange of information has become a very powerful force in Pakistan," says Omair Zahid, a senior producer at Pakistan's Sohne Dharti Television. "The media is finally starting to exert itself, especially in digital forums, and there is a backlash from the establishment, especially the intelligence agencies."

Zahid adds that while the establishment is playing the religious card now with the ban on Facebook and YouTube, in the broader context, religion is being used as a cover.

"It goes well beyond religion," he says, "and touches on fundamental questions like the role of the media, especially digital media -- which is so much harder to control -- as the watchdogs of the establishment."

Most media people in Pakistan agree that the court decision to ban Facebook and YouTube reflects the panic that is gripping Pakistan's institutions. "They've made a mistake," says Khattak. "You can't simply ban a narrative you don't like on the Internet. It doesn't work. What you need to do is offer a counter-narrative."

But Khattak says Pakistan's leaders are not sophisticated enough to do so.

Rolling back the Internet freedoms Pakistanis have enjoyed for years may be impossible now that so many young people have developed advanced Web-surfing skills. The ban on Facebook, for example, is only a minor inconvenience: Net-savvy youth are simply using proxy servers to access their accounts.

Like their counterparts in Iran during last summer's election protests, Pakistan's political and security establishments are realizing that the Internet beast cannot be tamed. The question now is whether they will unlock the doors -- or try to build a bigger cage.