Egypt's state prosecutor on Wednesday ordered a ban on Internet pornography, after a previous court order to do so was not implemented.
State prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud "ordered a block on pornography sites," his office said in a statement.
The official Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website that the order was directed at the interior, telecommunications and information ministries to "take steps to block any pornographic pictures or scenes on the Internet."
An administrative court issued a similar order in 2009, ruling that Internet pornography "ruins moral values."
But Egypt, now under the rule of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, does not appear to have banned any websites, unlike several other countries in the region that have tried to restrict access to political or pornography websites.
Blocking pornographic websites will cost Egypt up to LE100 million ($16.5m) to implement and may cause significant slowdown to the country's internet services, according to telecoms and IT experts.
Cairo, Mar 31 (ANI): An Egyptian court has ordered the government to ban pornographic websites to protect society and its values.
The ruling came from a lower court that made a similar ruling three years ago. But it was not enforced, because at the time, officials argued that filtering of systems was not very effective.
The pornographic website issue recently underlined the Islamist domination of parliament, when an ultraconservative lawmaker presented a query asking the government to ban pornographic websites because they endangered the morality of the country's youth.
Meanwhile, human rights activists have criticised the latest ruling and warned that it was a violation of freedom of information in an already conservative society, The Daily Mail reports.
What started out as a call by an Egyptian member of parliament, has now reached the Ministry of Telecommunications taking its initial steps to block Internet pornography in the country, local daily, Egypt Independent reports.
According to the newspaper, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Mohamed Salem announced that the National Telecommunications Regulation Authority (NTRA) is forming a committee to tackle to methods in which the censorship will be implemented. The committee will also reportedly consist of members of parliament.
Speaking about the plan to go ahead with the block, Salem said, “The issue is becoming persistent and worrying to families,” echoing statements made by conservative MP, Dr. Younis Makhioun last month.
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CAIRO: It is the kind of publicity most political organizations can only dream of. But when an Egyptian Islamic fundamentalist MP, Younis Mekhioun, proposed his party’s most recent legislative platform, perhaps not even he anticipated the response.
The scale of reaction to the Al-Nour proposal is symptomatic of the cleft which has emerged among Egyptians since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak last year.
After calling for a blanket ban on pornography in Egypt, Mekhioun triggered a tidal wave of comment from his fellow countrymen and women – much of it supportive, but some of it coming from those who were amused, angered and utterly incensed.
His call, which is now due to be discussed by Egypt’s lower house of parliament, was made on behalf of the Salafist Al-Nour Party, the ultra-orthodox Islamists who managed to surprise many Egyptians with their robust, runner-up finish during the recent elections.
By Tuesday night, Al-Nour’s Facebook wall – usually a dreary collection of political announcements and initiatives – was awash with febrile reactions to the plan.