When the Government of Pakistan announced that it would be filtering the internet, Bytes for All initiated a major campaign against what it called an unconstitutional decision. Supported by multiple national and international human rights organisations, news has been released that the plans to filter Pakistani internet have been cancelled.

This year, Pakistan Day, held on 23 March 2012, was marred with oppression against the people of Baluchistan in the South of the country through province-wide communications blockages. All cellular phone networks were shut down throughout the day of celebration in the name of national security. Bytes for All strongly condemns the ban.

While some women were being showered with flowers to celebrate international women’s day, Afghani women activists were diligently learning new tech skills at a four-day Feminist Tech Exchange held in Kabul by the APC women’s programme. The experience has left them with much more than just technology skills.

Surprising as it may be, the internet in Iran started out as comparatively open in the region. However, censorship and internet clampdowns noticeably increased when conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. The internet had until then given activists, journalists and political dissidents a way to get around Iran’s restrictive media laws and communicate with the outside world.

Maria Goreti, a papuan woman, was left pregnant and abandoned by an indonesian soldier. She and her 3-year-old daughter are still waiting for him to return. South to South Film Festival award-winning short film “Love letter to the Soldier” by EngageMedia tells her story.

The government of Pakistan currently has plans to filter the internet, which will affect freedom of expression, speech and opinion in the country. Bytes for All fears the internet will be further restricted as the 2013 general elections approach. Read the public statement by Bytes for All.

The website for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is the latest victim of censorship in Indonesia. It joins a number of other LGBT rights organisations which have been blocked by pornography filters.