ISLAMABAD – Pakistan government has reportedly blocked the Urdu and Pashtowebsites of the Voice of America upon anti state reporting.
The government has blocked Urdu and Pashto websites of Voice of America(VoA) for covering anti-Pakistan activities of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement(PTM).
If you attempt to access, the website shows several errors like “www.urduvoa.com took too long to respond.” or “The connection towww.urduvoa.com was interrupted while the page was loading. The page youare trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the receiveddata could not be verified.”
According to an official from VoA, the Pashto website was blocked monthsago when they covered a PTM rally in which anti-Pakistan slogans wereraised.
However, the Urdu website was blocked just last week after coverage of PTMMNA, Mohsin Dawar’s press conference.
Dawar’s name is in the Exit Control List (ECL) for above-mentionedactivities and he was barred from flying abroad in a Dubai-bound flightlast week, which prompted him to call a press conference.
“Initially, we received complaints that the website was not accessible atsome places, but later it was completely blocked,” the official said.
The official also told that the Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry hasalso confirmed the website was inaccessible in the country for the samereasons.