Imagine a situation.
You have an online business. Your entire livelihood is dependant on the deals you make and the products you sell through that website.
And one morning you wake up to see –No website. No portal. It appears to have vanished into thin air.
Yes it has been blocked. Censored.
Also yes, this is an extreme case scenario but quite possible if governments of countries suddenly decide that this xyz product or service is henceforth detrimental to common good.
Ok then take scenario two where governments decide that certain articles, opinions and even authors are taboo. They too are blocked, jammed or dropped. And it’s your personal blog that’s on the chopping block. How would you as a writer feel?
Yes that’s exactly why censorship is a totally bad idea!
But it’s happening.
Articles, logs and news reports on sensitive issues are disappearing as fast as they appear.
There are systematic stalling and disruptions of websites and email.
Search engines like AOL, Google are being prevailed upon to toe the line.
Why should they? How can they?
Why- because of terrorism, security concerns, confidentiality and religious mayhem.
How- because these are reasons enough! All in the interest of the larger good of course.
Japanese society has one of the most active and largest internet cultures going- every one in two being a technophile. Suddenly young Japanese are waking up to curbs and censorship blocks
Not to talk about China and some countries in the Middle East where censorship is endemic.
Oh yes the US too keeps watch with the American Patriot Act an instrument that empowers the US administration to keep a strict check
India also has her filters in place (blogspot.com. and some sites during the Kargil war were banned) but media/public rage has so far staved off more draconian measures especially after Yahoo was censored out. It was soon lifted.
Death Knell
Freedom of thought, speech and the expression thereof is essential for our/any nation’s very existence and democracy (via the print media, internet or otherwise).
Yes curbs will take away a writer’s lifeline.
Yes it will stifle society.
Yes it could very well sound the death knell of all free and uninhibited ‘writing’ as we know it.
Yes it is invasion of privacy under the guise of regulating harmful and illegal content.
Yes it enables ‘whoever’ control of any hitherto free and liberated personal content if deemed inimical to its policies. Also what is acceptable one day can easily become unacceptable the next.
On the other hand, with emotions the way they are today, World War III may happen much sooner than later without it.
So which is better?
So don’t be surprised if your pieces that can be read in say the Middle East is not available in other parts of the world and vice versa- depending on which society it’s supposedly condemning or influencing.
That’s censorship for you!
- Sreelata Menon
Please Note: Chillibreeze does not endorse techniques or views mentioned in the articles here. The articles listed here are provided as reference material for writers as a support service.
Check out the complete list of our featured articles for Indian Freelance writers and editors
Related Links
Courses, Certifications and Higher level tests evaluated by experts
Writing and Editing Assessments
Expert Review of Your Writing
Related posts:
- Internet Censorship and the Indian Freelance Writer
- The Issue of Rights and the Indian Freelance Writer
- Occupational Hazards of Being an Indian Freelance Writer
- A Freelance Writer’s Tools on the Internet
- The Web i.e. Content and the Indian Freelance Writer
Comments:
{ 1 trackback }