Noida, Feb 07: Pakistan’s bid to gag an Indian news platform’s ground coverage on Balochistan has been rebuffed by social media giant Twitter.
The microblogging site rejected Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) request to gag a News9 Plus story. The PTA had claimed that the content violates their law. News9 plus, India’s first news OTT platform, released two-part series ‘Balochistan: Bangladesh 2.0’, which investigates alleged gross human rights violations in the region as also the likely reasons for sudden attacks on Chinese nationals in Balochistan.
The documentary series describes the rise in alleged state-sponsored killings of the Baloch people. Strategic experts and geo-political observers have labelled the restive province a second Bangladesh, a reference to East Pakistan which broke away as an independent country in 1971.
The spike in violence has also been attributed to anger by Baloch rebels over China’s investment plans in the province. Beijing continues to expand investments in its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through the province. As Balochistan’s resentment grows over the Chinese shunning locals, violent attacks against Chinese nationals have seen a surge over the last few years.
PTA objected to the December 25 documentary series. Twitter contacted Aditya Raj Kaul, Executive Editor of News9 Plus, on February 5 through the mail.
Kaul is the director of the docu-series for which the news platform’s unit traveled across Balochistan braving obstacles from the Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps.
“We have been investigating the human rights abuse and persecution of the Baloch people by the Pakistan Army and the ISI. While reporting the story, we spoke to activists, journalists, and common people across the province collecting primary evidence of the gruesome torture and its conversion into a virtual Chinese colony. Pakistan’s objection to our Balochistan series is an attack on freedom of expression and only vindicates the questions that we have raised,” Kaul said.
Twitter said they have not taken any action on the PTA objection at this time.
“In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from PTA regarding your Twitter account that claims the following content violates law of Pakistan. We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request,” the communication said.
Twitter also stated that they strongly believe in defending and respecting the voice of their users and it is their policy to notify the users of any legal request from an authorized entity they receive regarding the removal of content from their accounts. (ANI)
