Media Regulation Abroad

Pakistan telecoms authority to block 'obscene' texts
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has told mobile phone companies to begin blocking text messages containing "obscene" words.

Mobile phone companies Telenor Pakistan and Ufone confirmed to the BBC that the PTA has sent them a "dictionary" of banned words and expressions.

The PTA has reportedly ordered operators to begin screening text messages by 21 November.

Ufone say they are now working on how to block the offending words.

A letter dated 14 November, apparently written by Muhammad Talib Doger, an official at the PTA, has been leaked to Pakistani media.

It states that mobile phone operators should begin screening the words, provided on a list attached to the letter, within seven days.

"We have received both the dictionary and the memo and we're discussing a way forward," said Anjum Nida Rahman, corporate communications director for Telenor Pakistan.

The ban is a reaction to consumers' complaints of receiving offensive text messages, Mohammad Younis, a spokesman for the PTA, told The Guardian newspaper.

"Nobody would like this happening to their young boy or girl," he said. He added that the list was not finished and that the authority would continue to add to it.

'What am I missing?'
An unconfirmed version of the PTA's list is being circulated online, containing hundreds of words and expressions in both English and Urdu.

According to this version, the entries range from those too obscene to repeat to the bizarre.

Some of the choices on the list have baffled Pakistani mobile phone users, many of whom have taken to Twitter to ridicule the move.

Syed Adnan Yousuf, tweeting as @AdnanWhy, asked: "Why is 'head lights' banned? What am I missing here?"

Some people have suggested bypassing the ban by replacing words with their number on the PTA's list.

Pakistan has seen a big increase in mobile phone use in recent years - 100m Pakistanis are now estimated to be mobile phone users.

Some of the allegedly banned words
Athlete's foot
Flatulence
Jesus Christ
Monkey crotch
Back door
Bewaquf (foolish)
Bakwaas (nonsense)
Wuutang (a presumed reference to American rap group the Wu-Tang Clan)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15772292

(17-11-2011 22:15 )eccles Wrote:  Some of the allegedly banned words
Monkey crotch

This could be my fault Umm...2 bottles of Jack Daniels and Economic Affairs Minister Hina Rabbani Khars phone number aren't the best ever mix....I wish i had never sent that text now....





In my defence, Geo TV and Masti Chat look very similar when you're drunk

China cuts 'too popular' TV shows
Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Belfast Gazette Wrote:China is to restrict reality shows and other light entertainment on satellite TV as part of a drive to wrest back Communist Party control over culture.

The order from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, known as SARFT, refers to shows that are vulgar or "overly entertaining." It singles out programs dealing with marital troubles and matchmaking, talent shows, game shows, variety shows, talk shows and reality programming.

Such shows must be largely phased out by the beginning of next year by the country's 34 satellite TV stations, to be replaced with news and cultural programming. The order also bans viewership surveys and the use of ratings as the sole criteria for whether to broadcast a particular show.

The changes aim to "meet the public's demand for varied, multi-level, and high quality viewing," said the order.

"Satellite channels are mainly for the broadcast of news propaganda and should expand the proportion of news, economic, cultural, science and education, children's, and documentary programming," it said.

The order follows a Communist Party meeting last week that asserted the need for strengthening social morality and boosting China's cultural influence abroad - a recognition by the party that it is losing its power to dictate public opinion.

Social media, especially hugely popular microblogs that encourage individuals to generate content, are also being targeted by government censors.

The crackdown coincides with a bout of national hand-wringing over a lack of public ethics, highlighted by the death last week of a toddler who was struck by a vehicle and left for dead by passers by. Officials believe the promotion of "core socialist values" - a phrase meant to counter calls by liberal Chinese for "universal values" - will bolster social cohesion in the face of rising materialism.

The communique said television programmes and other cultural products should be "refined and inspiring," while oversight of the internet must be strengthened to block pornography, vulgarity, and the "transmission of harmful information."

(my emphasis)
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/w...z1e6VrYspz

And another slant on the same news:

PlanetneXt (Paolino Accolla ) Wrote:Media – Too much sex and democracy: Chinese censors go after TV and Internet
Posted on 17/11/2011 - by Paolino Accolla Too much sex and nudity. Too much free talk and democracy. The Party has drawn a new line regarding political correctness and since the beginning of the month China’s censors have been tightening the already stiff controls on national media, focusing mainly on the Internet and social networks, but taking action also against independent TV broadcasting.

Scores of websites have been taken off line, while new filtering devices and tracking surveillance systems have been introduced to monitor and distillate contents circulating on microblogs. At the same time Super Girl, the most popular TV talent show in the nation, has been cancelled.

Among the disabled sites, there are some 50 microblogs which, according to a state news agency Xinhua report, were responsible “for violations that include carrying pornographic images and videos,” or promoting prostitution.

Interestingly, a recent communiqué by the Communist Party Central Committee published in the People’s Daily stressed the importance of strengthening “guidance and administration of social Internet services and instant communications tools, and regulate the orderly dissemination of information,” while applying the law “to sternly punish the dissemination of harmful information.”

Pornography and nudity, that is, are only part of the problem. As officials clearly point out, the government is determined to have a say on all kinds of information deemed not only indecent and vulgar, but also false or simply unverified.

In this perspective, oddly enough, nudity and democracy end up being closely related, since action against pornography is often used as an excuse to censor material with political contents. Which is what happened to dissident artist Ai Weiwei, when a couple of years ago he attracted the fury of authorities for posting on the Internet an image of himself, virtually naked, under a title loaded with political innuendos.

Censorship has a long history in Communist China. And as of December 2010, the country was tied with Iran for the highest number of jailed journalists. At least 34 of them are currently in prison, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, while the group Reporters Without Borders estimates that 77 Chinese “netizens” and cyber dissidents are incarcerated.

more...

http://www.planetnext.net/2011/11/media-...-internet/

This is slightly on and off topic, but here goes:

Just a few minutes ago singer Rihana was singing on the X Factor results show, and near the end she leaned over to do a position and her mic was nowhere near her mouth, yet the singing still went on even though her lips weren't moving either. Basically she was caught completely lip sinking. I mention this because at exactly that moment when it was blatantly obvious, the feed died and it went to the typical SKY message about the satellite being down. Now, it is not raining or snowing where I am, and it's not windy either and my satelite works fine, and, the channel resumed back to normal literally five seconds after the revealing moment. To me, it felt way too cconvenient for the channel to screw up at that most revealing moment, and it felt like someone was watching the show from the SKY control room and got nervous and pulled the plug for a few seconds until Rihana was dancing around and not singing.

Could this be censorship to a whole new level???

(18-11-2011 23:53 )eccles Wrote:  China cuts 'too popular' TV shows
Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Belfast Gazette Wrote:China is to restrict reality shows and other light entertainment on satellite TV as part of a drive to wrest back Communist Party control over culture.

The order from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, known as SARFT, refers to shows that are vulgar or "overly entertaining." It singles out programs dealing with marital troubles and matchmaking, talent shows, game shows, variety shows, talk shows and reality programming.

Such shows must be largely phased out by the beginning of next year by the country's 34 satellite TV stations, to be replaced with news and cultural programming. The order also bans viewership surveys and the use of ratings as the sole criteria for whether to broadcast a particular show.

The changes aim to "meet the public's demand for varied, multi-level, and high quality viewing," said the order.

"Satellite channels are mainly for the broadcast of news propaganda and should expand the proportion of news, economic, cultural, science and education, children's, and documentary programming," it said.

The order follows a Communist Party meeting last week that asserted the need for strengthening social morality and boosting China's cultural influence abroad - a recognition by the party that it is losing its power to dictate public opinion.

Social media, especially hugely popular microblogs that encourage individuals to generate content, are also being targeted by government censors.

The crackdown coincides with a bout of national hand-wringing over a lack of public ethics, highlighted by the death last week of a toddler who was struck by a vehicle and left for dead by passers by. Officials believe the promotion of "core socialist values" - a phrase meant to counter calls by liberal Chinese for "universal values" - will bolster social cohesion in the face of rising materialism.

The communique said television programmes and other cultural products should be "refined and inspiring," while oversight of the internet must be strengthened to block pornography, vulgarity, and the "transmission of harmful information."

(my emphasis)
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/w...z1e6VrYspz

It's all there, isn't it.
The fear of the loss of control of oneself projected onto the rest of us.

China and Ofcon, a match made in heaven.

Hurrah for Ofcon.

So.
Farewell then.
Megaupload.

You are one
Of the
File upload

Places. You
And I had little in
Common.

Except that
Like me
You remembered

Things. Also Kim
Kardashian and Neelie
Kroes Support.

Us. Frankly
Is baffling.

Twitter to selectively 'censor' tweets by country

Twitter has announced that it now has the technology to selectively block tweets on a country by country basis.

In its blog, Twitter said it could "reactively withhold content from users in a specific country".

But it said the removed content would be available to the rest of the world. Previously when Twitter deleted a tweet, it would disappear worldwide.

The decision has been criticised by the freedom of information advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.

(more)
BBC 27 Jan 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16753729

Fines threat for credit text messages

Firms face raids and fines of up to £500,000 for sending unsolicited text messages about credit or compensation.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said tackling the issue was a "high priority".

Typical messages claim recipients are entitled to money, promise to write off debts or find a loan, or suggest accident compensation can be claimed.

But in many cases, the products they are selling can actually make people financially worse off.

The ICO said it was investigating several cases at the moment, and had identified certain companies to target.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) charity is running a campaign against unsolicited texts, and believes the messages cynically target vulnerable people.

Late-night texts

Sarah Stocks, from Plymouth, said she started to be bombarded by texts after enquiring online about applying for a loan. She decided not to go ahead with the application, but by then, her contact details were already being used.

"I got [texts] all the time, sometimes four or five a day. You know, you're lying in bed reading, about to switch off the light, and you get a text at 10.30pm. But when you pick it up it says 'Do you want a loan for £5,000?'," she said.

"It is just absolute harassment. I think they have sold my details on to more companies."

Many of these texts can be from legitimate companies, and come after a box is ticked, or terms and conditions are agreed to that allow the company to get in touch.

But others are randomly generated, and are against the law if no consent has been given to allow such messages to be sent.

These companies do not know anything about the recipient or their finances, or even if the phone number is real. If a reply is sent, the number becomes more valuable because the sender knows it is genuine.

(more)
BBC 28 Jan 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16759025

European Parliament rapporteur quits in Acta protest

Negotiations over a controversial anti-piracy agreement have been described as a "masquerade" by a key Euro MP.

Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), resigned over the issue on Friday.

He said he had witnessed "never-before-seen manoeuvres" by officials preparing the treaty.

On Thursday, 22 EU member states including the UK signed the agreement.

The treaty still needs to be ratified by the European Parliament before it can be enacted. A debate is scheduled to take place in June.

Mr Arif criticised the efforts to push forward with the measures ahead of those discussions taking place.

"I condemn the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation given, reject of Parliament's recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly."

Mr Arif's decision to stand down follows protests by campaigners in Poland. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets after the agreement was signed.

Crowds of mostly young people held banners with slogans such as "no to censorship" and "a free internet".

(more)
BBC 27 Jan 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16757142