Tuesday, December 6, 2011
India needs Cyber Policemen, who can ensure freedom of Speech and filter Abuses
Recently the social Networks like Facebook, Yahoo etc are hugely misused to upload offensive, defamatory and even abusive contents in respect of political personalities, celebrities, big industrialists, and even for young guys of any sex, simply in the names of fun, fury or political propaganda... Circulation of any such defamatory offensive or abusive contents among the circles or groups of friends can be a matter of fun and amusement but it is still an offence of defamation, in accordance with the provisions of Section:500 of India Penal Code and all those persons who are publishing, circulating, promoting and commenting and even sustaining on their Networks can be liable for the punishment as well as for a huge compensation in respect of any such offence of defamation and libel in the eyes of Indian Laws... Yet lots of such offensive publication and circulation of defamatory contents of our Political Leaders and celebrities are procured and promoted everyday on such Social Networking Sites, without any restraint.. and thus Freedom of Speech has crossed beyond the line and limits of demarcation, which is a true bitter fact.. Therefore India needs Cyber Policemen, who can ensure freedom of Speech and filter Abuses... Hence yesterday an eminent lawyer of Supreme Court of India and the Cabinet Minister in the Centre Mr. Kapil Sibal indicated in reference to such the cyber storm and misuse of Internet medias recently that " Our Indian government is working on some specific guidelines to enforce some sort of monitoring to screen the contents of the social networks. Intention of the government is just to monitor objectionable content and not to interfere with the freedom of expression or Freedom of The Press. We will evolve guidelines to ensure such content is not part of any platform. We simply want some human intervention until these platforms develop technologies to stop objectionable content from getting published. Countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Iran censor the internet. China has 30,000 cyber-policemen who monitor the net.." A Google spokesperson has rightly said in this regards that “We follow the law when it comes to illegal content… But it also means that when content is legal but controversial we don’t remove it because people’s differing views should be respected, so long as they are legal.” Anyway, in the nick of this time, India needs Cyber Policemen, who can ensure freedom of Speech and filter Abuses of Media and Social networking.."
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The present Chairman of Press Council of India and Ex-chief Justice Markandey Katju Katju recently favored Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's proposal and has said that "As per section 153A of the IPC, it is a criminal offence to promote, or attempt to promote disharmony, feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will between different religious communities or groups, or do an act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious groups or communities, and which is likely to disturb the public tranquility. I have carefully perused the material in question and am of the opinion that there can be no manner of doubt that they attract Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code," the former Supreme Court judge said.
ReplyDelete"Hence I am of the view that such offensive material should be removed or filtered out from the social network sites on the Internet immediately," Katju said.
"Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution which provides for freedom of the media, is subject to Article 19 (2) which states that restrictions can be placed on this freedom in the interest of public order, decency and morality," Katju said.
He said that freedom must always be enjoyed within reasonable restrictions.
"I strongly support freedom of the media, no freedom is absolute, and all freedoms are subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest," he said.
Observing that India is a country of great diversity, Katju said the only way our country can be held together is by giving equal respect to all communities.
"The media and all persons should take care that the religious and other sentiments of any community should not be hurt," Katju said (DNA: Courtesy)
This is so wrong I don't know where to start from.
ReplyDeleteWho decides that the integrity of the government should be preserved? The government? That right has traditionally lied with the people of the country. The right to oppose the government; the right to voice our opinions on the policies of the government is the backbone of the democracy. If we aren't allowed to voice our opinions on that, where is the democracy? There are a few things that make me proud of being an Indian. One of them is the right to protest, and the fact that we can oppose the government without any fear of retaliation from the government. So, after the 'ramdev protest' was put down, and the way Congress handled the Anna protest initially, and then this, I actually fear for our country. Are we slowly going the China way?
Anyway, the stupidest thing is- the Government finds it 'unacceptable' that people made defamatory comments on its party chief? Could you get any more thin skinned?
"We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people, we have to protect their sensibilities. Our cultural ethos is very important to us" Sibal told reporters on Tuesday.
I don't even know what that is supposed to support. Exactly who are these people whose sensibilities are SO hurt that it asks for banning? And where does culture come into this? Pardon me, but 'culturally' we've always voiced our opinions.
India does NOT need a cyber policeman, just the government needs to develop a thicker skin.
Ayushi,
ReplyDeleteI welcome your comment so far as concerned to our right to protest and fundamental rights of speech and expression. But I do not still agree to use our freedom to defame and abuse about any person to such an obscenity which no decent society may permit to get the same published in public... Even the guilty person is also not supposed to be victim of such an vulgar defamatory obscenity in our judicial system as it is so done against innocent congress leaders like Dr. Monmohansingh and against Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, in the name of right to protest on various social networks... Would it be lawful and decent if any person who disagree with them or with their views and rules, may defame to any damned defamatory extent with their obscene pictures and abuses in the name of rights of protest and expression on social networks like Facebook, Google or else.. ??? Which countries laws allow these stuffs in the name of liberty ??
A Positive action taken to safeguard our Democratic System and Freedom of Expression. Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Sudesh Kumar took cognizance on a private criminal complaint and has directed the Centre for taking "immediate appropriate steps" and also file a report in the court by January 13.Similarly another court in a civil case had restrained social Network Sites including Facebook, Google and Youtube from webcasting any "anti-religious" or "anti-social" content promoting hatred or communal disharmony.
ReplyDeleteIn the fresh case, the court said, "it appears from a bare perusal of the documents that prima facie the accused in connivance with each other and other unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content which also appears to the prurient interests and tends to deprave and corrupt the persons who are likely to read, see or hear the same." "It is also evident that such contents are continuously openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents," the court said.The Metropolitan Magistrate has summoned the accused companies to face trial for allegedly committing the offence punishable under section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
The Magiastrate noted that in the website material submitted by the complainant, Vinay Rai, a journalist, contained obscene picture and derogatory articles pertaining to Prophet Mohammad, Jesus Christ and various Hindu Gods and Godesses.