Pakistan, Martial Law & the Internet

When Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution on November 3 in Pakistan, the blogosphere and traditional media were quick to call it implementation of martial law. It has been widely reported (see a news round-up here and Global Voices has set up a page for continual updates here) that with emergency rule came a crackdown on both traditional media and Internet use.

Restrictions on infrastructure have been reported. ABC news reported that at the time of the declaration, phone and Internet access were cut for a short period. Today, it was reported that phones were again cut at 13:45 local time, purportedly to interrupt a phone call between Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest since the crisis began, and the lawyers who are protesting. By 18:00 local time, phones were back up. The Hindustan Times reported that ISPs were asked to cut Internet service on Saturday November 2, and at least one complied, though service resumed several hours later.

Also, with emergency rule comes heightened fear of repercussions for speech. Blogger Dr. Awab Alvi stated in a message to the Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan that he has turned over his blog to an activist outside the country, who will be live blogging for him. He strongly urged other Pakistani bloggers to do the same. Even though ISPs and cybercafe owners must keep records of users' names, locations and connection times, among other things, it appears to be unlikely that communications would be linked to the individuals sending them. With a brief look around the Pakistani blogosphere it seems that the amount of live blogging taking place has increased recently, instead of the crisis quelling speech.

When ONI tested for filtering last year, sites were found to be blocked especially sites regarding separatist movements and blasphemous content. The overall openness of the Internet today remains in question.