Obituary - Freedom of Speech

A few events that I read in last couple of weeks prompted me to write this one.

Last week, the Mumbai police negotiated with Orkut to block/ban groups that they felt were not nationalistic.
I do agree that they need to be moderated and that this should not be the center for terrorism, prostitution and scams. However, we want to have a free press and a place where people can express thier feeling as well as vent out thier frustration against the current state of economics, politics; gossip on Page 3 etc...

Half way around the globe, post the Don Imus episode, where he was suspeneded from msnbc after the controversial statement he made on his shows where he called a Rutger's basket ball team as ho's brought in another drama. The Afro-American leaders got together and protested against the record companies in NYc demanding that record companies have been promoting crass lingo into the Hip Hop culture.

Hip Hop or music in general has had a long lasting relationship with radicalism be it sex, drugs and voilence to abusive language, anti-war/politics. Again, this is not limited to music but would be applicable to all forms of art including literature and paintings.

Free speech is a boon and a bane. On one side, we need people expressing thier views/ opinions and on the other, we want them to remain within the societal norms. Sometimes just dont work. Time and Time again we have had artists play a crucial role against various subjects. Singers have talked about safe sex when sex was a taboo (Including our very own Remo Fernandes in Everybody wants to uhh..). they have talked against the wars (My fav on this being Zoombie from Cranberies which is against the IRA); post-war trauma (Final Cut- Floyd). Bono, Bruce Sprigstein etc.. have talked about politics. Our own poets have been crucial in spreading messages during the freedom movement. So history has been the proof that we do need free press for the betterment of this world. We don't want to be yet another berlin wall or the iron curtain.

Some of the sites that they are talking about banning are hate sites against Gandhi, Nehru, Indian cricket team and the likes. These are personal views and should be respected. If need be, we need to regulate it so that children below 18 cannot join these sites. But, the social sites build the social network in the virtual world. The world is a global village and the net brings us together irrespective of the social status and the geography.

Hey Moderators, leave these sites alone......... what beats me is Google joined them and agreed to it so easily!!! I also saw google de-activate a lot of accounts on youtube where people had uploaded movies. This one I support as it is impeachment of the intellectual rights and the copyrights.

We need Laws without boundries to govern these issues as what is legal to one is not legal to another. The global bodies need to decide on the code of conduct and not just another so called social police.