A court in Pakistan on Friday suspended a directive that aimed to ban over two dozen YouTube channels belonging to critics of the government, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan, according to a defence lawyer.
Alphabet-owned GOOGL.O YouTube this week told 27 content creators that it could block their channels – including those of journalists and Khan and his opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf – if they failed to comply with a judicial magistrate court order seeking to ban them.
It said that it is considering blocking their channels after a local court sought to ban them for being “anti-state.”
A regional communication manager for YouTube did not respond to a request for a comment.
The judicial magistrate court in Islamabad had said it was seeking the ban after the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency criticised the channels in a June 2 report for “sharing highly intimidating, provocative and derogatory contents against state institutions and officials of the state of Pakistan.”
‘The Order Has No Legal Basis’
The decision to suspend the order was taken by an additional sessions judge, said Imaan Mazari, the lawyer for two of the YouTube content creators.
In Pakistan, an additional sessions judge is a judicial officer who presides over a sessions court, handling both civil and criminal cases.
“Our submission is that the order has no legal basis. It was a one-sided decision without giving defence a chance to be heard,” Mazari said.
She also said the magistrate court had no jurisdiction over the matter.
The next hearing in the sessions court is on July 21.
In Pakistan’s judicial system, cases start at civil and judicial magistrate courts and appeals are heard in high courts and the Supreme Court.
Digital rights campaigners say that any ban would further undermine free speech in Pakistan, where the authorities are accused of stifling newspapers and television, and social media is seen as one of the few outlets for dissent.
(With inputs from Reuters)
