Pakistan blocks YouTube in 'anti-Islamic' row

Pakistan's government has banned access to the video-sharing website YouTube because of movies that the authorities consider "anti-Islamic", an official said today.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told the country's 70 internet service providers on Friday that the popular website would be blocked until further notice.

The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a movie trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders allegedly portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

The PTA official said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority also blocks websites that show controversial drawings of the Prophet Mohammed.

The drawings were originally printed in European newspapers in 2006 and were reprinted by some papers last week.

The PTA urged web users to write to YouTube and request the removal of the movies, saying authorities would stop blocking the site once that happened.

Pakistan is not the only country to have blocked access to YouTube.

In January, a court in Turkey blocked the website because some video clips allegedly insulted the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It is illegal to insult Ataturk in Turkey.

Last spring the Thai government banned YouTube for about four months because of clips seen as offensive to Thailand's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Moroccans last year were unable to access YouTube after users posted videos critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control of in 1975.