Islamabad, 28 June 2022 (TDI): Pakistan has expressed deep concerns over the Indian act of blocking access to Twitter accounts of its diplomats and missions abroad.
According to the statement of Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Azhar, India has withheld the access to Twitter accounts of Pakistan embassies.
These included the accounts of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York along with many other accounts.
Deeply concerning that #India has blocked flow of information to Indian @Twitter by withholding access to following official accounts👇🏽
📍@PakinIran
📍@PakinTurkey
📍@PakinEgypt
📍@PakistanUN_NY.These are in addition to many others for which access has been blocked.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) June 27, 2022
It is extremely alarming that India is diminishing the space for a plurality of voices and access to information.
The spokesperson urged Twitter to restore access to Pakistan missions’ accounts immediately. Simultaneously, he adjured them to ensure the adherence to democratic freedoms of speech and expression.
Moreover, Pakistan’s permanent representative to United Nations, Munir Akram also expressed his views in this regard.
According to him, this suppression of information violates India’s obligation under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Furthermore, he added that this move is another sign of growing fascism under RSS rule.
This step is a follow-up to the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting withholding 16 news channels on Youtube. Six of these blocked channels were from Pakistan.
Along with this, India has also blocked Twitter access to Radio Pakistan, a national broadcasting service in Pakistan.
Freedom of Speech in India
The Indian constitution does not provide an absolute Freedom of Press and Speech.
Article 19, does provide this freedom however, the constitution also allows the government to curb it.
Section 153A, 153B, 292, 295A, and 298 provide legal grounds to criminalize any verbal or physical aggression against India’s religious or national integrity.
In India, nine journalists were killed in 2015, and two were shot dead in 2017. India was ranked 138th out of 180 countries according to the 2018 Press Freedom Index.
