Hi all, There's been significant media coverage of the impending internet censorship plans by Pakistan's Government. The anti-censorship campaign has been able to garner support from national and international organizations. The positive news is that, we were able to push the government to extend the tender closing date, for URL filtering and blocking system, from 1st of March to the 16th of March. Our partners in the campaign, Business Human Rights Resource Centre, were able to forward our petition and letter to company CEO's and we received commitments form: -Websense - Cisco -Verizon -Sandvine They have committed not to bid for the URL filtering system. However, Mcafee,ZTE , Huawei, Bluecoat has not responded. We are now getting very close to the tender closing date and have entered a crucial phase in the campaign. We believe at this point it would be most beneficial to keep building pressure. - Getting businesses with investments in Pakistan to speak up and write to the Ministry of IT - Getting media to focus on various aspects of the issues, including how this could effectively turn online spaces as tools for surveillance, how this would hurt the economy, academic paralysis and halt innovation. We have put together a Press Kit, it is comprehensive and has basic info that most of you might already be aware of, to inform journalists within and outside of Pakistan about the situation and it's repercussions. Please feel free to share, amongst your contacts: http://bolobhi.org/press-release-public-statements/press-kit/national-url-fi... Here is a timeline for the campaign so far: http://bolobhi.org/timeline-campaign-against-internet-censorship-in-pakistan... Thank you and I would really appreciate your suggestions, feedback and help, Best, Sana -- Chief Operating Officer Bolo Bhi Privacy-Advocacy-Research http://bolobhi.org _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE