Pakistan on Wednesday said it was looking at summoning the BBC to demand an explanation over a documentary about the Taliban that left the BBC World News channel blocked nationwide. Cable operators pulled the channel late on Tuesday amid anger over NATO air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The move raises concerns about censorship in the conservative Muslim country of 167 million, where Facebook was briefly banned in 2010, just days after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority sought to ban “obscene” text messages.
The Cable Operators Association of Pakistan, confirmed that it had pulled BBC World News from air and said other Western news channels had been ordered “not to indulge in anti-Pakistan propaganda”. The row relates to a two-part BBC documentary, “Secret Pakistan”, which questions Pakistan’s commitment to tackling Taliban militancy.
