Pakistani Court Says Internet Censorship Plan Is Unconstitutional

[p2p rules]

We recently wrote about Pakistan's attempts to build its own internet censorship regime, capable of blocking 50 million sites that the government doesn't like. However, a petition by civil rights groups has apparently resulted in a court ruling saying that such censorship is unconstitutional under the Pakistani constitution. Of course, from the writeup linked above (from Reporters Without Borders), it appears that there is at least some skepticism that the Pakistani government will obey its own court:

    The high court’s ruling, if respected, would make it impossible for the government to introduce any nationwide website filtering system.

    While welcoming the ruling, which penalizes the lack of transparency in the PTA’s past website blocking, Reporters Without Borders calls for vigilance because the PTA could try to circumvent it by devising a constitutional procedure based on the anti-blasphemy law and national security provisions.

Still, it's good to see courts around the globe pushing back on this desire to censor the internet.

techdirt