Ban on Blogs in Pakistan
After the chaos over the election dates, General Pervez Musharraf imposed certain restrictions on the media. Now, after the assination of Mrs. Bhutto, fingers are pointing towards the Musharraf administration for the manner in which the whole situation was handled. These are not good times for the General, with public sentiment and international media not in his favour. Musharraf knows the repurcussions of a bad media image, and he wants to keep a tab on it, much like ally China.
Imposing and controlling traditional media is easy, after all what you see is what you get.
With the traditional media under censorship, the outflow of public opinions and views proliferated on the internet - predominantly through blogs. Blogs are an effective medium of communication, and its democratic nature makes it very powerful too. Musharrag probably realised the damaging effects and decided to put a ban on blogs against the establishment.
Unfortunately for Musharraf, the Internet is a complex unorganised medium, and even with the most effective filter and bans in place, word will still get through.
This just demonstrates the power of the Internet, blogs in particular and how helpless a dictator would feel trying to control a medium that cannot be controlled.
Tags: Pakistan
