PESHAWAR – Former Pakistani premier Imran Khan has rapped Sharif-ledgovernment for censorship after authorities blocked access to YouTube tolimit Khan’s speech from being broadcast live on the video streamingplatform.
Khan reacted to the development a day after NetBlocks, an internet tracker,confirmed the outrage, while YouTube Down was trending on the microbloggingplatform.
In his latest tweet, the defiant politician accused the government ofcensoring him on digital platforms, saying such moves would damagePakistan’s reputation.
“They are imposing a complete blackout of my speeches not only frommainstream media but also by blocking YouTube. This fascist govt of a cabalof crooks and their backers are willing to harm the interests of Pakistansimply out of fear of (his party) PTI’s soaring popularity. Utterly callousand unacceptable”, the tweet cited.
Meanwhile, YouTube officials have not responded to the issue, while arepresentative of the Pakistan Telecom Authority said they had no ideaabout the outage.
Despite the blackouts, PTI Chief continues to rake millions of views ondifferent social platforms.
Read Top Stories
The ruling alliance decided to censor Khan’s live telecast after hisexplosive speech in which he mentioned state institutions.
Later, Islamabad High Court revoked the orders by the media watchdog,saying PEMRA cannot ban speeches based on objectionable comments.
Last month, a pro-PTI news channel was taken off the air but a courtordered the ruling illegal and another private TV channel was suspendedlately for airing anti-government content.
Since being ousted from the premiership, the PTI chief has been referringruling alliance ‘imported govenrment’, a reference to his claim of foreigninterference behind his ouster.
