In a bid to be more open and transparent, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is in the process of formulating regulations to clearly define the process of websites having objectionable content, revealed a well placed source in the organization.
In a summary dispatched to Prime Minister Secretariat, the authority has thrown light on its proposed plan in detail and also the nitty gritty of execution process. The authority now formally awaits approval from PM Secretariat. The move it is believed, will also pave the way for Internet censorship.
In the summary, PTA has recommended to increase the members of inter-ministerial committee to include operators and industry experts to to decide ban or not to ban a website.
Unlike current practice of asking all ISPs to block a particular URL in case it is banned, the recommendation forwarded to PM Sect proposes a centralized filter to block websites containing offensive content.
This centralized filtration solution will help PTA in executing the Government orders if decision for banning a website is ever made.
Particularly, after recent Facebook incident, PTA is extremely concerned about the current process of banning internet websites based on anti-Islamic or anti-state websites.
In this regard, PTA has studied Saudi, UAE, Singapore, Chinese and some other censorship models to come-up with the best possible way-out for getting the internet censorship, which may be acceptable by majority of stakeholders and internet users in the country.
