Pakistan's
government has banned access to the video-sharing website
YouTube because of anti-Islamic movies that users have
posted on the site, an official said.
The Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority told the country's 70 Internet
service providers on Friday that the popular site would be
blocked until further notice.
The authority did
not specify what the offensive material was, but an
official there said Sunday that the ban concerned a
movie trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker
Geert Wilders, who has said he plans to release an
anti-Koran movie portraying the religion as fascist
and prone to inciting violence against women and
homosexuals.
The official, who
asked not to be identified because he was not an
authorized spokesman, said the Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority also blocks sites that show controversial
drawings of the Prophet Muhammad. The drawings were
originally printed in European newspapers in 2006 and
were reprinted by some papers last week.
The authority
urged Web users to write to YouTube and request the removal
of the objectionable movies, saying authorities would stop
blocking the site once that happened.
Pakistan is not
the only country to have blocked access to YouTube.
In January a
court in Turkey blocked the site because some video clips
allegedly insulted the country's founding father, Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk. It is illegal to insult Ataturk in
Turkey.
Last spring the
Thai government banned YouTube for about four months
because of clips seen as offensive to Thailand's revered
monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Moroccans last
year were unable to access YouTube after users posted
videos critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of
Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control
of in 1975. (AP)
