Islamabad, Jan 9: Pakistan will reopen popular video-sharing website YouTube only after completing work on a filtration mechanism, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has said.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had told internet service providers to unblock YouTube from December 29, 2012. But within an hour of its opening, the prime minister re-imposed the ban because an anti-Islam film had not been removed, the Dawn reported Wednesday.
“We believe in access to free information. The only reason not to unblock YouTube is the presence of blasphemous material on it. We will open it as soon as we have a filtration mechanism,” Mr. Ashraf was quoted as saying.
The site was blocked by the government on September 17, 2012 after mass riots erupted in the country following the uploading of the film.
The PTA earlier said talks were underway with YouTube's parent company Google for the removal of blasphemous content from the web site.
