A group of bloggers has come up with a 21st century-style protest against the Centre’s old-fashioned censor on certain websites.
A group of influential bloggers in the country has come up with a 21st century-style protest against the Centre’s old-fashioned censor on certain websites.
The bloggers, who call their initiative the ‘Bloggers Against Censorship’ campaign, have invited Net users to collaborate on an online draft of a public interest litigation against the Centre. On http://censorship.wikia.com/wiki/PIL, the blogger group has thus appealed to lawyers: “Please edit this page collaboratively to create a public interest petition.” It adds, “It is ethically inadmissible that the government can use security as a cover to suppress (sic) free speech.”
Members include such noted names as writers Dilip D’Souza and Peter Griffin. Amit Verma, a popular blogger based in Mumbai, in an e-mail, said, “(We have come together) to protest against the blocking of Blogspot. We also feel strongly about freedom of speech, and are against censorship.”
Besides claiming an infringement of free speech rights, the blogger group has also said that the ban will deprive professional bloggers of advertising revenue.
Asked whether any attempt had been made to speak with the Centre on the censorship, Verma said, “On the few occasions that some of us tried to speak to members of the government, they weren’t forthcoming.”
Shivam Vij, another member, said in an email: “The PIL is being considered.” He said, “We are waiting for a day or two to see if this resolves itself. ...then we are going to file an RTI (Right to Information) application with (the central government). Most probably tomorrow (Wednesday).”
On its part, the government even on Tuesday maintained silence on the issue. An email from DNA to Gulshan Rai, who heads the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team of the central Department of information Technology, did not receive any reply on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, an MTNL official based in Delhi has reportedly threatened to sue a blogger who claimed on his blog that the official had admitted about the ban in a conversation with him.
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