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Indian Government Lifts Ban on Blogs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-have-a-soapbox-and-i-must-speak dept.

iDope writes "The Department of Telecommunications of the Government of India has lifted the ban on blogs (reported previously on Slashdot) following pressure from the Indian blogger community and the media. Even with the lifting of the ban several bloggers from BloggersCollective are getting ready to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) (similar to a Class Action Lawsuit in US) in the Supreme Court of India against the Government censorship of the Internet."

6 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Good news, I guess by ChaosCube · · Score: 3, Informative

    Even though I don't live in India, this is good. I'm all for people saying whatever the hell they want, regardless of any governmental restrictions or intrusions. Now, if only we could get the government off our backs here in the states...

    --
    BDR Gear
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  2. Re:Okay by rovingeyes · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ever hear of wikipedia? Anyways, try this link

  3. Official Circular by iDope · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here's the official notice by the Department of Telecom to ISPs to remove the block (http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=18954 ):
    July 20, 2006 The Department of Telecom (DoT) has instructed all the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country to block only the specified website/webpages on the parent website. The DoT, in its letter issued to all the ISPs has mentioned that it had come to notice that in some cases the parent website had been blocked in contravention to what was stated in its earlier order dated 13th July 2006 whereby it ordered the ISPs to block certain websites/webpages. As such the DoT has now directed all the ISPs to strictly comply with the order dated 13th July 2006 and provide unhindered access to Internet except for the websites/webpages which have been specifically mentioned in its orders issued from time to time. The DoT has further sought explanation from the erring ISPs as to why action be not taken against them for blocking unintended websites/webpages.
  4. Did anyone RTFA ? by genmax · · Score: 5, Informative

    So, the article says that ..

    a) The govt. had infact NOT asked for all blogs to be banned. It was just ISPs being clueluess. Repeat after me .. the blanket ban on blogspot and typepad was in ERROR ... the ISPs' mistake .. not the big bad govt's.

    b) The govt. had infact asked for 20 odd blogs and sites to be blocked - these were allegedly trying to incite hatred against certain minority communities, by blaming them for the recent bomb blasts in Mumbai. It was felt that such hate campaigns may lead to a violent reprisal against these communities.

    c) While banning said sites may also be an attack of freedom of speech (though I think this is similar to the ban on Nazi propoganda in Germany). it is NOT in the same league as that in China and North Korea.

    d) This (and by this, I mean blocking the original 20 sites, not the whole of blogspot, etc) is ALSO different from the US govt's reaction after 9/11. There was no attempt to use temporary public anger to justify aggression, infact quite the opposite - the govt. has tried to defuse such tensions and ensure sanity prevails.

    1. Re:Did anyone RTFA ? by appavi · · Score: 2, Informative

      Absolutely true. Indian govt banned only 17 websites. But the ISPs blocked the websites that are not in the list. Indian newspaper Hindu has posted the copy of govt order that is sent to ISP for blocking the websites.

  5. Indian Supreme Court Can Strike Down Laws,Bans,etc by sanman2 · · Score: 2, Informative
    But like any judiciary, the case has to brought before it.

    You have to bear in mind that this govt is a Left-wing coalition, and so their willingness to resort to things like censorship will be greater.

    The center-right political opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, have in the past championed laws such as the Prasar Bharati Act to protect independence of the media from arbitrary government censorship, precisely because the Indian Left have a long history of playing these types of games.

    That's why the Left favors the notion of big govt at every oppportunity, because they like to use Big Brother tactics on political opponents.

    Read here about the State of Emergency which was declared by the Congress Party in 1977 as a stunt to grab absolute power and arrest political opponents.

    The Supreme Court struck down the Emergency with their court ruling, and despatched law enforcement personnel to arrest Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had re-named her party Congress(I) -- I for Indira.