By TARIQ KHONJI
Published: 9 August 2006
Gulf Daily news
BATELCO yesterday refused to confirm or deny whether it had blocked or was going to block the free Google Earth computer programme, which allows people to see satellite images of countries all over the world.
It follows a report in an Arabic newspaper that the company had blocked the site.
A company spokesman said it would only block a website after it had received specific instructions to do so from the Information Ministry, whether it relates to pornography or something else.
However, he would not specifically say that it had blocked this particular site.
By TARIQ KHONJI
Published: 9 August 2006
Gulf Daily newsBATELCO yesterday refused to confirm or deny whether it had blocked or was going to block the free Google Earth computer programme, which allows people to see satellite images of countries all over the world.
It follows a report in an Arabic newspaper that the company had blocked the site.
A company spokesman said it would only block a website after it had received specific instructions to do so from the Information Ministry, whether it relates to pornography or something else.
However, he would not specifically say that it had blocked this particular site.
The GDN was able to download the programme yesterday, but was unable to connect to the Google Earth servers to activate the account.
Internet users reported that the site had been unavailable for two hours on Monday, but then returned to normal.
Information Ministry Press and Publications Assistant Under-Secretary Dr Abdulla Yateem, who is deputising for Under-Secretary Mahmood Al Mahmood, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
He refused to comment on Monday.
It was reported in the Arabic Press that the decision came from Information Minister Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar, but none of the Information Ministry officials the GDN spoke to could confirm this.
Dr Abdul Ghaffar himself was in Beirut taking part in an Arab Summit to discuss the current crisis in Lebanon.
National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad) secretary general Ibrahim Sharif said that if the report was true, he believed the site was being blocked because the government didn’t want the public to get a close look at property he believes has illegally fallen into private hands.
“Real estate information is like military secrets here,” he said.
“They want to keep this from the public to prevent anyone from learning the level of corruption here.”
Google Earth has caused controversy in several countries, including India and China, with some attempts to block it.
Some claim that it makes public secret information regarding military positions, which comprises the national security of countries.
These have proved unsuccessful, however, since many people have posted methods of circumventing the bands on the Internet.
However, Bahrain Internet Society chairman Ahmed Al Hujairi criticised any move to block the programme.
“We are surprised if such a decision has been taken because no proper explanation has been offered,” he said.
“They (the government) had previously said that they wanted to block sites that were against Bahrain’s values, such as porn sites, but why did they block Google Earth?”
Mr Al Hujairi believes it is pointless to block sites, saying there will always be ways of getting to them.
“I think that if people can get around it, there is no reason for the blocking of any sites,” he said.
“It also slows down Internet usage because the system has to check every website to see if it is on the blacklist.”
Meanwhile, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) has written to Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt asking him to take action if its service has been blocked.
“Blocking this service is a violation of the human right to freedom of information,” it said. “We would like your help in returning this service to us either through legal channels or through diplomacy.
“We ask you to contact Bahrain’s Information Ministry and ask it to stop interfering with free services on the Internet.”