ISLAMABAD: The Voice of America (VoA) has called upon Pakistan to lift a block on two of its websites, in Urdu and Pashto.

“In the interest of press freedom, VoA calls upon those responsible for blocking our content to immediately remove these constraints,” said Amanda Bennett, the director of VoA, in a statement.

“Any attempt to block our websites deprives Urdu and Pashto speakers in the region access to a trusted news source,” she continued, adding that the organisation was “troubled” by the block.

The VoA Urdu website has been partially or fully blocked since early this month and the site for VoA Deewa, the Pashto language service, since late October, she added.

The websites have been irregularly accessible in Islamabad in recent days.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told VoA the block was in place due to “false and prejudiced reporting”.

“The stories they were doing were only projecting a particular narrative without any impartial view,” he said, according to a story published by VoA on its English-language site. “There are many things happening in our country and most are positive.” In the article VoA blamed the penalty on its coverage of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).

Recently, the military warned the PTM that it will use force against them if they “cross the line”.

In January, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Pashto-language station — Radio Mashaal — was closed for airing content “against the interest of Pakistan”.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018