They unblocked the blogs!

They’ve unblocked Blogspot, but the Pakistani “Don’t Block the Blogs” gang is still at it, trying to ensure that the Internet, as a whole, is uncensored in Pakistan.

According to my friend Dr. Awab Alvi, Pakistan Telecom Authority reversed the two-month block on all Blogspot blogs. The blogs had been blocked as part of a campaign to prevent access to the Danish cartoons considered offensive to the Prophet Mohammed. One of the sites the government ordered blocked was on Blogspot, and the PTA responded by blocking the entire Blogspot domain, rather than just the specific, offensive blog.

While PTA has corrected this error – due in no small part to lots of online lobbying by Pakistani free speech advocates – only three of the 16 sites blocked as part of government order are currently visible today. Awab and his partner in free speech, Omer Alvie, continue to lobby for free access to all these sites within Pakistan:

All celebrations aside there are still a few websites that are still blocked from the PTA’s list. I feel the government should not be the enforcer of any ban, it usually makes matters worse and unwillingly projects the website into fame and recognition. The bureaucracy should realize that people are educated enough to decide for themselves and a small website can make all the fuss but if left alone will die its own death, probably far sooner if unrecognised than actually annoucning and blocking it publicly.

Congratulations on the success, guys, and good luck with this next stage of the campaign.