Slashdot Mirror
Indian Government Lifts Ban on Blogs
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."
How about China, with one fifth of the world's population, learns from this and stops censoring their internet, allowing Chinese citizens to fully participate in the online world community?
I really hope /. keeps up on the coverage of this story if it goes to court. It would be quite entertaining to see a govt get it's hat handed to them for strongarming their population.
What we are seeing here is the difference between a democratic government like India (which has things like elected officals eventually accountable to their constituents and thus amenable to influence by public pressure; and an independent judiciary with the power to check the elected officials if they violate the citizenry's fundamental rights), and a state like China.
Democracies can be imperfect; democracies like India can make mistakes, or do things (like this Blog censorship program) which are wrong. But at least in a democracy, there is some kind of mechanism in place that can be used to eventually fix the mistakes and correct the wrongs. China has no mechanisms in place to correct the wrongs of those in power. And so you can wait, but the wrongs are not going to just go away.
Wow, I have never seen a more rhetorical question from a guy who comes from India and is apparently settled in US (visit his website). Somehow I feel that you are one of those millions of Indians in US who feels they care about their country and express it in soulless words. If you were all that concerned, you wouldn't be waving racing flags at Nascar races, but instead be in India and help the poor in that country get education or something goddamit.
Either people aren't reading the article or are completely oblivious to recent events.
Trains in Mumbai (Bombay) were recently bombed in what many people suspect was an act of Islamist terrorism to further the separation/Islamistization of Kashmir.
The blogs in question were inciting violence against India's muslim population in response to the train attacks. The blocking of these blogs were done to prevent the incitement of retalliatory attacks and to prevent the issue from escalating into an unmanageble situation like what is currently happening in Israel/Lebanon. I for one think this is the only legitimate use of censorship and applaud the Indian government for its foresight and action.
Many people fail to realize that India is not only the world's largest democracy and for the most part has a responsible government. Unfortunately, India too often gets lumped in with the Islamist extremests to the west (of India) or the Communist despots to the east (of India).
You know, I did mod some people, but I'm gonna dump that just so I can say this one word to you.
NO.
Okay, I lied, there are more words. This was a big fubar on the ISP's part, *NOT* the government. Didn't you RTFA? (I actually decided to, for once.)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
that's the nth time my big mouth has got me into trouble ... now i'm just going to make wise ass remarks about trivial topics.
but since we're in this subject ... what is the total percentage of people in India who actually read blogs? About 2% of the population have access to the Internet in India. I totally agree that "freedom of press" is important, but we don't see that even in the traditional print medium.
I'd say this story is more worthy of /.
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
Did you even RTFA? The Govt. asked ISPs to block 17 blogs (not entire blog networks) and even those blogs were not "terrorist" blogs but rather sites inciting reprisals against India's muslim minority for the Bombay bomb blasts last week.
....", except when you think its justified? Paging Dr. Hypocrite.
As for "censorship is always bad except
IOException - Can't Speak
Ah, yes. A post about censorship in India under an article about censorship in India. Clearly offtopic.
I don't usually complain about moderation, especially that of my own posts, but WTF?
If you feel you must protect your county no matter what it does, why not reply and explain to me how culturally insensitive I am in thinking that censorship sucks.
If, however, the moderator was on crack or just wasted, please accept my apology and enjoy your experience.
Hi,
First, you should not look at the percentage of 1 billion but actual numbers. If 2 million people (or 20 lakhs as we call it) read the blogs, then its lot of people who are affected. Also, you seemed to miss my point. This is not just about blogs. Its a slippery slope when it comes to freedom of press. Yes, blogs are the least influential media and if there is no resistance next will be local cable channel political programs and then governemnt will move up to mainstream news and news papers.
Also I want to state that most of the blogs censored has content and views, that I am dead against. Our news (I belong to a party that supports rationalist viewpoint and is against Hindu fundamentalism) was censored by the last government and this government attepmts to censor the opposing viewpoint. Although I disagree with everything the blog says, I want the opponent to say it as I want to be able to do the same when I am against the ruling party.