Internet Freedom

Islamabad, August 08, 2012: Bytes for All (B4A), Pakistan is very pleased to share new research ‘Digital Security and Journalists: A Snapshot of Awareness and Practice in Pakistan’.

Islamabad/Karachi: 25 April 2012: Bytes for All, Pakistan, and RYSe (Reclaim Your Space) have launched a countrywide eNGO Network — a digital consortium of grassroots NGOs and non-profit organisations in the country.

Bytes For All, Pakistan, is a human rights organisation that focuses on the strategic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in advocacy for internet freedom, digital security, freedom of expression; and its flagship programme, the globally-acclaimed Take Back The Tech campaign.

Islamabad – Saturday, March 17, 2012: Today, the democratic government of Pakistan is celebrating its achievements, when President of Pakistan made his fifth consecutive speech to the joint session of Parliament in the federal capital Islamabad. On this important day, it is extremely disappointing to note that despite severe criticism, Government is going ahead and continuing with its plans to filter the internet in Pakistan.

Islamabad, Friday, February 24, 2012: The Government of Pakistan has repeatedly exhibited the obsession to lock up the Pakistani cyberspace at every given chance. The reasons for doing so are myriad and diverse, but mostly, they revolve around the same unjustifiable excuses like upholding national security, war on terror and/or religious morality.

We, participants in the South Asian Meeting on the Internet and Freedom of Expression, having met in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 2-4 November 2011 to deliberate on the state of freedom of expression in our region in the digital age, and coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Considering the importance of social media and the Internet to the growth and advancement of democracy in our region,

Have adopted the following resolution:

Access to the Internet

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has served legal directives to all internet service providers in the country requiring that they implement an earlier regulation banning in the name of anti-terrorism all internet encryption. ARTICLE 19 and Bytes for All regard the regulation, and related provisions in the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Act of 1996, to be in violation of international legal standards on the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy, and call on the government to amend the laws and retract the notices served.