IHC restricts government's website-censoring committee

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 15 December 2014

The Islamabad High Court has limited the powers of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Evaluation of Websites regarding content removal. This decision follows a legal challenge by the NGO Bolo Bhi seeking to ensure transparency and legality in the committee's operations.

Summary

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court Monday restricted an Inter-Ministerial Committee for Evaluation of Websites (IMCEW) from issuing orders to take down content from websites without the court's prior approval.

The court issued the order on a writ petition of a local NGO Bolo Bhi that works for rights of the Internet users. Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition and issued notices to chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and secretary of Ministry of Information Technology, directing them to produce list of banned websites in 15 days in the court.

Constituted through an executive order in 2006, the committee since then has been issuing orders for content take-down.

“The workings of the committee have been non-transparent and dubious to say the least in its eight years of existence. There is no public record of its members, meetings or directives,” Bolo Bhi said in the petition.

Facebook’s recent transparency report reveals 1,773 pieces of content were restricted by the social media website in compliance with Pakistan government requests, not only on grounds of blasphemy but also ‘criticism of the state.’

Bolo Bhi filed a writ petition in the court challenging legality of the committee, with the aim of having it declared unconstitutional.