Writ Petition 958-2013
BytesforAll vs Federation
Date: August 2, 2013
Submitted to: Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah
Lahore High Court
Honourable Sir,
I submit before you four letters.
The first of them is by Talea Zafar and Rabia Garib who run ToffeeTv.com. This entrepreneurial online venture by a team of young women based out of Karachi who develop songs, stories and activities for children between the ages of (0-12), in Urdu.
The second letter is by Salman Ansari who has been an IT consultant for many years; in previous years he has been involved in drafting policies on IT and Telecom for the government. In his letter, he references numbers regarding the availability of videos on YouTube. He also indicates the danger in relying on proxies to access YouTube and other banned websites, as they leave one’s machine open to viruses and malware.
The third letter is by Imtiaz Noor, an IT marketing consultant. He elaborates on the structure of the Internet and human search behaviour which indicates that the more attention is drawn towards certain content, the more it is likely to be searched for. He also provides a gist of diverse content available for viewing on YouTube.
The fourth letter is by Muhammad Ismail. A driver by profession, fortunately he has access to a computer his employer owns. On that, he watches YouTube to catch up on news of the day. Though he cannot read or write English, he has no difficulty operating a computer or accessing YouTube (prior to it being blocked).
All of the above contain perspectives on the multiple uses of the platform.
Submitted By:
Farieha Aziz (amicus)
Director, Bolo Bhi
Letters:
About The Author
Farieha Aziz
Farieha Aziz is a Karachi-based, APNS-awardwinning journalist. She is a co-founder and Director at Bolo Bhi. She has a masters in English literature. She worked with Newsline from July 2007-January 2012 and taught literature to grades 9-12. She served as an amicus curiae in a case filed in the Lahore High Court in 2013, challenging the ban on YouTube, and is currently a petitioner on behalf of Bolo Bhi in a case filed in the Islamabad High Court challenging government's censorship on the Internet and the powers of the regulator. She can be found on Twitter: @FariehaAziz and reached via email: farieha@bolobhi.org