The Pew Research Center found a majority opposed to government restrictions on online activity in 22 of 24 countries surveyed. PHOTO: FILE
WASHINGTON: While support is strong across emerging and developing countries for an Internet without government censorship, Pakistan recorded the lowest percentage of people expressing opposition to censorship, a US survey showed Wednesday.
The Pew Research Center found a majority opposed to government restrictions on online activity in 22 of 24 countries surveyed.
According to Pew survey, in Pakistan only 22 per cent of people polled expressed opposition to censorship but 62 per cent of people polled gave no response or were undecided.
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Among younger people in the 18-29 age bracket, a strong majority supported an open Internet in every country except in Pakistan, Pew said.
Support was especially high among younger people and in countries with a high percentage of people using the Internet.
Eighty-nine per cent of those surveyed in Venezuela said they supported an unfettered Internet, as did at least 80 per cent in Lebanon, Chile, Egypt, Argentina and Brazil.
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The numbers were high in Mexico (79 per cent), South Africa (77 per cent), Bolivia (76 per cent), Malaysia and the Philippines (both at 73 per cent) and Nigeria (72 per cent).
"Support for Internet freedom tends to be strong in nations with high rates of Internet penetration, such as Chile and Argentina, where roughly two-thirds of the population is online," the Pew report said.
"It is less common in nations with lower penetration rates, like Indonesia and Uganda," where 55 and 49 per cent, respectively, said they oppose government censorship.
The report comes days after the US government announced it was giving up its key role in charge of the Internet's technical operations, handing over those functions to "the global multistakeholder community."
While US officials said they would work to maintain a free and open Internet, critics of the decision said the move opens the door to other countries to impose new controls on online activity.
The results from Russia contrasted with those of the rest of the survey, with a relatively low percentage of 63 per cent saying they oppose censorship even though Russia has among the highest levels of Internet use.
The well-educated were more likely to support an open Internet in many countries. In Tunisia, for example, 73 per cent of college graduates said it is important to have Internet access without government censorship, compared with 56 per cent of the overall population.
Pew researchers polled 21,847 people in 24 emerging and developing economies from March 3, 2013 to May 1 in face-to-face interviews.
The margin of error ranged from 3.5 per centage points in Venezuela to 7.7 points in Turkey, with most of the national surveys between four and five percentage points.
COMMENTS (23)
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That's because Pakistani's have another way to access the censored sites. Internet censorship is a myth. People will always find out ways to breach the security.
Proxy tools like http://www.unblk.net will always come in handy. And if they close one, many more will pop up.
I am not surprised at all by the poll results in Pakistan! Our current youth is the post Zia Generation and Ofcourse that means that by a young age their minds are drilled with the idea that freedom is wrong and censorship is good not to add the experiment our State has done with religion!
youtube is being used as a medium to showcase the so called indian "developments" like their metro and other infra projects, space projects etc.. It is psychological warfare. This is demoralising our youth. The govt has every right to keep youtube banned and also to censor internet to safegaurd national interest.
Internet must censored. Internet foreign conspiracy on Pakistan to break government. Also internet make fun of Islam. So censor internet is good.
It is good to restrict something which is against our society and our religion. am in favour of such restrictions but blocking whole youtube is not a wise decision .they should have technology or any agreement for removal of such blasphemous material on there website. on other hand it is good that people are not differing against govt. we should support our govt on such restrictions specially related to religion because it is compulsory on us.
I am still glad more people oppose restriction than support it in Pakistan.
@Bakhtiyar Ghazi Khan http://tribune.com.pk/story/684506/jirga-injustice-forcibly-married-divorced-gang-raped-paraded/
Its latest
Pakistanis never fail to surprise me...........Why are we so different from the world......why can't we be normal people
@Ali S: Absolutely correct. One can never really rely on such polls to give an accurate representation of the way people feel. Perhaps a better poll question should have been "How do you feel about the government not allowing you to express yourself freely?" - I believe your results would be more in-line with global norms.
this is something good. people of Pakistan know that all that is available in internet is not good, and to safeguard young girls, boys there must be restrictions on use of net.
Censorship of objectionable content is good for society and promotes decency. Do we really want to become a rape capital like India?
make total sense Pakistanis are worried about their children
Censorship should be there and it has NOTHING to do with so-called tolerance, independent thinking etc. Specific websites or few pages/sections of a whole website should be blocked that are incompatible with Pakistan's ideology and policies. However the list of censored websites/pages should be public and reason should be cited that why it has been blocked. For example as of now, many pornographic websites are not censored but some "innocent-looking" websites are blocked. It's unfair and not just.
it is easy to understand why, whereas, in the west people have money to defend their children by creating filters, in Pakistan people have neither the money nor the access to technology to create such filters. People in Pakistan depend on the Government to provide safeguard to their children and their families. Pew and other such polls are biased and completely ignore what is obvious.
Only 1% of the population has broadband. Only 10% use the Internet at all. How can you expect them to oppose censoring something that they don't use and don't understand? That is also why so many refused to give any answer. The Internet has no bearing on their lives. Only when that changes (and it will) will people's attitudes change.
You want things to change in Pakistan? Lobby for the end of PTCL and TWA's duopoly on international bandwidth. This should reduce the cost of fast Internet access and help bridge the digital divide. Right now though these two companies have us by the short and curlies.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1094193/support-strong-for-open-internet-in-developing-world-except-pakistan
I don't even know what to say about this country anymore. ...
Opposition to censorship required free thinking, so that definitely leaves out Pakistan.
The internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it as everyone has an opinion and the next person who screams for censorship might have his ideas cut since censorship is like a charity which should begin at home but unlike charity should end there as censorship defeats its own purpose for in the end it creates a kind of society that is incapable of exercising its own discretion for the only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.
Who did they survey in Pakistan? How many people and what demographics?
People in Pakistan have clearly forgotten what it's like to have freedom and choice, and to live guilt-free and fear-free..... I hope things change before the country implodes
RIP independent thinking, creativity and tolerance.
Another way to see the path Pakistan is going not because of the politicians or the military or the media or the Martian BUT because of its people.
As Shakespeare said in JC: "The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings"
I guessing that most Pakistanis wondered "If I say I support an uncensored internet, I am supporting that blasphemous video on YouTube" before answering this survey, thanks to our semi-literate media and politicians who use religion as a cover for anything. We have lost the ability to think. What a shame. Other Muslim-majority nations like Malaysia, Lebanon and even Nigeria don't have this problem.
Most of the censorship, because of the religion and unfortunately Pakistan is extremely religious state.