SC judge says YouTube is an educational tool

People should voluntarily stop watching objectionable content: Justice Isa

ISLAMABAD:

A Supreme Court judge has remarked that video-sharing website YouTube is an educational tool and it should not be mixed up with other sites containing pornographic content.

“As far as objectionable material is concerned, technical experts must address this issue,” Justice Faez Isa, a member of a two-judge bench, said while hearing a petition seeking a permanent ban on YouTube and abolition of obscenity.



The petition was filed by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the late ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and another JI leader Muhammad Hussain Mehnti. Another petition, filed by Barrister Zafar Ullah Khan, which seeks lifting of the YouTube ban, was clubbed with it.

Justice Isa said millions of people uploaded and downloaded informative content from YouTube. “We are moving backward. If a gun kills, then it also saves lives,” he said. “If there is some objectionable content on YouTube, then there is also a lot of informative content on the site. People should [voluntarily] stop watching objectionable things.”

However, Mehnti’s counsel Advocate Tofeeq Asif contended that Pakistan was not a free society but an ideological state, where objectionable material should be removed from websites and Pemra should implement its laws on obscenity.



Earlier Additional Attorney General Amir Rehman informed the bench the government has set up a complaint cell, which immediately blocked objectionable sites whenever it received a request.  “A 25-strong complaint cell has been set up in the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) office which monitors complaints.”



The court was told that more than 50,000 websites containing pornographic content, 10,000 sites containing blasphemous material, at least 6,000 social media pages and 10,000 proxies have been blocked.

PTA Director General Nisar Ahmed informed the bench that the domain of YouTube in Pakistan has been launched with the technical facilities of removing objectionable material from the site.

Hussain’s attorney Advocate Akram Shiekh recommended the court enquire from PTA’s director general if pornographic content could be censored.

The PTA head told the bench that any type of content could be uploaded on YouTube because a subscriber of the site becomes its operator. “However, the PTA has the technology that objectionable content can be removed as Pakistan has sought its domain.” He said the only possible solution for eliminating obscene content was to ban the internet.



Another member of the bench, Justice Ejaz Afzal said: “Our concern is that the content being shown on YouTube is adversely affecting the youth.” He enquired from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and PTA what has been done so far to root out this menace.

The bench sought suggestions from Pemra, PTA and other stakeholders on how to check obscene content on media. The hearing was adjourned for 15 days.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2016.