http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15764641
Blogs and free speech: Report paints sorry picture
One would think that with advances in technology and its increasing users, freedom of expression would get a boost. But the World Information Access (WIA) Report 2008 paints a sorry picture and brings to the fore the harsh reality since 2003.
THE INTERNET has opened up many possibilities by allowing people to connect to various causes and mobilise public opinion. Nonetheless, the so-called liberation it had come to represent through blogs and online networking sites has brought into light the controversy revolving around freedom of speech and expression.
The growing reach of the Internet, as a platform for those whose voices had been suppressed for whatever reasons, be it their authoritarian regimes or their own introverted nature, was lauded. Since the early 2000s, net users got a chance to let the whole Internet-savvy crowd be privy to their views and feelings with web logs or 'blogs' as popularly referred to.
Blogging became a global phenomenon, connecting strangers from diverse cultures and nationalities and acquainting them with what is happening at the other side of the world.
Everything seemed all hunky dory. From personal experiences, recipes, films to life under dictatorship, blogs chronicled them all. But as their popularity ballooned to unimaginable proportions and dissident voices increased on online portals, those 'in power' took notice.
Authorities, threatened by the power of a nascent technological medium, resorted to arresting bloggers, even some bloggers who were difficult to trace.
One would think that with advances in technology and its increasing users, freedom of expression would get a boost. But the World Information Access (WIA) Report 2008 paints a sorry picture and brings to the fore the harsh reality, since 2003, in which bloggers faced several arrests. Several bloggers were arrested from countries as diverse as Iran, Nigeria, China and Saudi Arabia in 2009 alone.
The blogs that are targetted the most and see their owners get arrested, according to the WIA Report, are those that expose bureaucratic corruption, human rights abuses, criticise public policies or politicians and report social protests through articles or photographs.
Violation of cultural norms are the other grounds that are considered shaky for a blogger if she/he intends to stay out of trouble with the police. A blogger was arrested in India in 2007 for violating cultural norms. Other countries that have arrested bloggers using this reason are Singapore, Egypt, Greece, USA, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Philippines and UK.
China, Singapore, Tunisia and Myanmar are the countries where bloggers have been arrested for exposing corruption or abuse of human rights.
China, Myanmar, Egypt and Iran are the countries in which blogs that intended to organize or cover social protests had bloggers in trouble.
According to the list of blogger arrests in the WIA Report 2008, In 2003, five bloggers had been arrested. But thirty-five were arrested in 2007.
China, Egypt and Iran may account for more than half of all the arrests since 2003 but statistics falsify the perception that only the totalitarian regimes and developing countries are plagued by the problem of stifling of freedom of expression.
Bloggers need to be wary on posting opinion about public policies and politicians in France, Iran, Tunisia, Singapore, Egypt, Syria, Fiji, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kuwait and Russia.
It seems that freedom will always be out of reach.
Instead of targeting those who have rights to their opinions, it would be more fruitful to take measures to control the rampant piracy and unrestricted child pornography on the Internet.
The irony is that there are other more pressing Internet related issues for governments to care of.
Some believe that the Internet has to be strongly regulated as numerous cyber criminals take advantage of legal and technical loopholes in their countries to commit crime. Apart from cyber scams, criminals have even taken to bragging about their exploits on their profiles.
Recently, a boy from Kerala was summoned to court in Maharashtra for creating an 'I hate Shiv Sena' community on Orkut. He was summoned even though the IT Act 2005 exempts the owner of the website from the repercussions of the content posted by its user. The boy, who feared for his life, petitioned to have his case heard elsewhere but it was rejected.
For an online user, setting up communities to express his thoughts should have been a natural action and not one with such dire consequences.
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