Urdu blogging website Haal Hawal shuts down
JournalismPakistan.com | Published: 3 May 2021
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Haal Hawal has ceased operations after five years, largely due to limited resources. The website will keep its content accessible for three months.Summary
QUETTA— The team members of Balochistan's first Urdu blogging website, Haal Hawal has decided to close it down permanently after five years of its inception.
“It has become impossible to run the website with limited financial and human resource,” senior member Shabbir Rakhshani told JournalismPakistan.com on Monday.
The content on the website will remain accessible to visitors for three months enabling writers to save their contributions. After six months the team will try and publish the content in chronological form. The publications will materialize either on a bi-annual or annual basis. They will also be uploaded to the website.
Also, if possible, blogging will continue on a minor scale. It is pertinent to state that Haal Hawal was the first online Urdu blogging website from Balochistan, which started on May 3, 2016, the International Day of Press Freedom. It is dedicated to journalist Irshad Mastoi who was martyred in Quetta.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked the website on May 3, 2018 for one month. It did not assign any reason.
Haal Hawal, in a short time, attracted many readers and writers. Many writers began their writing careers from this website. Today several of them have become well-known writers. Collectively, more than 200 writers contributed to Haal Hawal with 11000 plus submissions.
Key Points
- Haal Hawal launched on May 3, 2016, coinciding with International Day of Press Freedom.
- The website faced a month-long blockage by the PTA in May 2018 without explanation.
- Over 200 writers contributed more than 11,000 submissions during its operation.
- The team plans to compile published content in chronological form after the shut down.
- Blogging may continue on a smaller scale in the future.
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