Net freedom remains amid clampdown

A blogger alerts fellow students to an imminent campus demonstration. A chat-room user offers up a poignant Urdu-language poem. Another message has more practical advice: a homemade tear-gas remedy.

In the days since President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of Emergency rule, cyberspace has been a haven for many Pakistanis, where they can share information, keep up with the news and stay in touch with friends and associates amid a roundup of thousands of opposition activists. About 15 percent of Pakistan’s population of 160 million has regular Internet access. Amid the crisis, many who previously were occasional Web surfers have become full-fledged devotees. “It’s not Burma,” student Aitsaz Qureishi said. “We can talk to each other, and we can talk to the outside world.” It’s not clear why Internet access largely has gone unrestricted as tough media curbs take effect and mobile phone service has been cut more than once. Some Web sites have been blocked, but many Pakistan-themed sites are attracting record numbers. Protecting the economy is a possible reason for the lack of Internet restrictions. The Pakistan economy has been hurt by the turmoil, and limiting Internet use would disrupt too many businesses. Others believe the government wants a quick means of dispelling unwanted rumours — such as persistent but untrue reports that soon after the Emergency declaration Musharraf had been overthrown by his own generals. Chat-room users and bloggers are exercising a degree of self-censorship, some have said, out of concern that authorities might be eavesdropping. Despite their wariness, cyber-diarists continued chronicling a national upheaval.