Service on Google Inc.'s YouTube Web site was disrupted around the world for several hours Sunday after a botched effort by the Pakistani government to block access to a video clip critical of Islam.
The story began unfolding Friday when the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, the nation's telecom regulator, ordered Pakistan's Internet-service providers to immediately block access to a specific YouTube video, which it said was so incendiary it could trigger riots. A senior official at the authority said it also contacted YouTube, requesting that the site remove the video. The authority argued the clip was a violation of YouTube's terms of service, which ban hate speech. YouTube has since removed the clip but says it doesn't comment on reasons for removing specific videos.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120395109205290503.html
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
China Eats Crow Over Faked Photo
HONG KONG -- It turns out that train tracks in Tibet aren't where the antelope play.
Earlier this week, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, issued an unusual public apology for publishing a doctored photograph of Tibetan wildlife frolicking near a high-speed train.
The deception -- uncovered by Chinese Internet users who sniffed out a Photoshop scam in the award-winning picture -- has brought on a big debate about media ethics, China's troubled relationship with Tibet, and how pregnant antelope react to noise.
The antelope imbroglio began in the summer of 2006. The Chinese government was celebrating its latest engineering feat, and an enthusiastic wildlife photographer from the Daqing Evening News was camped out on the Tibetan plateau eating energy bars and waiting for antelope to pass.
On July 1, 2006, in an event scheduled to coincide with the Communist Party's 85th birthday, Chinese President Hu Jintao hosted the launch of China's train to the "roof of the world." The $4 billion Qinghai-Xizang railway -- a remarkable system that transports passengers to an altitude (16,000 feet) so high that ballpoint pens can explode en route from the air-pressure change -- traverses 1,200 miles of rugged terrain to connect the rest of China to the remote Tibetan plateau.
The train, which soon brought many visitors to the pristine homeland of Tibetan Buddhists, became a flash point for China's long simmering tensions with Tibet. During construction, it drew fierce protests from environmentalists who said it would threaten the breeding grounds of the chiru, an endangered antelope species found mainly in China.
When the train service began, a remarkable photograph appeared in hundreds of newspapers, and it eased environmental concerns. The picture, captioned "Qinghai-Tibet railway opens green passage for wildlife," featured dozens of antelope galloping peacefully across the Tibetan landscape, unfazed as the gleaming silver train raced beside them.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120363429707884255.html
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Pakistan expels writer for New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan has expelled an American journalist who wrote in The New York Times Magazine about the rise of pro-Taliban militants in this key U.S. ally, a media rights group said Saturday.
A Pakistani official denied that Nicholas Schmidle had been deported, however, and said the American lacked a journalist visa. Schmidle, a visiting scholar at Pakistan's state-run Institute of Strategic Studies in the capital, Islamabad, occasionally wrote media articles.
A statement issued by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the Interior Ministry issued a deportation order to Schmidle on Tuesday -- less than a week after his report ''Next-Gen Taliban'' appeared in The New York Times Magazine.
''CPJ is unfortunately accustomed to reporting on the government's attacks on the local media, but now harassment seems to be spreading to foreign journalists as well,'' said Joel Simon, the CPJs executive director.
Schmidle's article, published on Jan. 6, was based on interviews with some of the officials, clerics and fugitive militant leaders who were on the run or fighting security forces in the valley of Swat and in tribal areas along the Afghan border.
To write it, he ''secretly traveled'' to militant strongholds, prompting authorities to expel him, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
An official at the press information department said Schmidle was not in the country on a journalist visa.
The official, who also declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the information ministry served a deportation order on Schmidle because he had traveled to ''sensitive areas'' -- but then withdrew it. He did not say why. Schmidle then left Pakistan on his own accord, he said.
Journalists must seek permission from the Interior Ministry before traveling to volatile northwest Pakistan, where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are thought to be hiding, and where Taliban militants plan attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Speaking from London on Friday, Schmidle told the CPJ that he was ''extremely disappointed at being asked to leave Pakistan,'' and that his visa contained ''no restrictions whatsoever,'' the statement said.
The magazine's editor, Scott Malcomson, told the CJP that authorities did not explain to Schmidle why he was being deported, but he said the move was clearly connected to his writing.
President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly warned that U.S. troops were not welcome to join the fight against al-Qaida on Pakistani soil, despite the growing threat from Islamic extremists.
A Pakistani official denied that Nicholas Schmidle had been deported, however, and said the American lacked a journalist visa. Schmidle, a visiting scholar at Pakistan's state-run Institute of Strategic Studies in the capital, Islamabad, occasionally wrote media articles.
A statement issued by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the Interior Ministry issued a deportation order to Schmidle on Tuesday -- less than a week after his report ''Next-Gen Taliban'' appeared in The New York Times Magazine.
''CPJ is unfortunately accustomed to reporting on the government's attacks on the local media, but now harassment seems to be spreading to foreign journalists as well,'' said Joel Simon, the CPJs executive director.
Schmidle's article, published on Jan. 6, was based on interviews with some of the officials, clerics and fugitive militant leaders who were on the run or fighting security forces in the valley of Swat and in tribal areas along the Afghan border.
To write it, he ''secretly traveled'' to militant strongholds, prompting authorities to expel him, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
An official at the press information department said Schmidle was not in the country on a journalist visa.
The official, who also declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the information ministry served a deportation order on Schmidle because he had traveled to ''sensitive areas'' -- but then withdrew it. He did not say why. Schmidle then left Pakistan on his own accord, he said.
Journalists must seek permission from the Interior Ministry before traveling to volatile northwest Pakistan, where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are thought to be hiding, and where Taliban militants plan attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Speaking from London on Friday, Schmidle told the CPJ that he was ''extremely disappointed at being asked to leave Pakistan,'' and that his visa contained ''no restrictions whatsoever,'' the statement said.
The magazine's editor, Scott Malcomson, told the CJP that authorities did not explain to Schmidle why he was being deported, but he said the move was clearly connected to his writing.
President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly warned that U.S. troops were not welcome to join the fight against al-Qaida on Pakistani soil, despite the growing threat from Islamic extremists.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
