Men of honor by Claudia Sonea

Who do you think you can blame for not being able to access YouTube Web site and see your favorite videos? Well, the entire blame falls on Pakistani Internet service providers that blocked the popular site across the world at the weekend when they restricted local access to the site, according to YouTube statement on Monday. Many users around the world could not access the site for about two hours due to a routed traffic created by erroneous Internet protocols. YouTube was blocked by Pakistan because it was running material insulting to Islam, a Pakistani industry official said on Sunday. An anonymous official said that this initial order to restrict local access might have inadvertently affected users around the world. Meanwhile, everyone in Islamabad on Sunday that tried to access YouTube received a generic error message saying the site was unavailable. All is well, that ends well. YouTube removed content deemed insulting to Islam and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on Tuesday lifted the prohibition. They said that the interdiction was necessary in order to avoid unrest in the overwhelming Muslim country of 160 million people. The material most probably had to do with the publications of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad from Danish newspapers in 2005 that sparked widespread anger and deadly protests in several Muslim countries, including Pakistan. Furthermore, last Tuesday, in the eastern city of Multan city 150 students staged a rally, burning Danish and U.S. flags to express anger over the reprinting of the cartoon. That proves you just can't joke with a man's faith and beliefs. It is a good thing that YouTube removed the insulting material and did not continued to broadcast it. A fair deal after all among honest people.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080226/tc_nm/pakistan_youtube_dc;_ylt=AvGA_ms.VCUKKukd2MXW.hCs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.