Thursday, July 20, 2006

Blogging Blocked in India

Hi everyone! There is upheaval in the blogging world in India!! Blogger.com along with many other sites has been blocked by the Indian Government. This has been done fearing anti-State activities, especially in the wake of the Mumbai blasts. BUT the repercussion has been quite unacceptable as it has extended to blocking out bloggers. The debate has shifted to curtailing of freedom of speech in a democratic land.

I have not been able to access your blogs since the past few days. It is only sometime back that I learnt one could access blogs through a proxy server which is what I am doing now.

A lot has been written about this matter already by the media and fellow bloggers as well. I would like to paste some links for you here for reference.

Some of the many news reports

Govt cracks down on websites, blogs
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu2&subLeft=1&autono=98682&tab=r

Indian bloggers fight government censorship
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/07/19/indian_bloggers
_fight_government_censorship.html

Press Coverage of Internet blocking in India
http://censorship.wikia.com/wiki/Press_Coverage_of_The_Ban

Blogs blocked; is Emergency coming?
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/are-we-heading-towards-emergency--ii/16034-11.html


Some of the many bloggers who have written about the matter

http://traveltalesfromindia/2006/07/what-is-up-with-blogspot-blogger-sites.html

http://whereisvijay.blogspot.com/2006/07/blogspot-blogger-is-banned-in-india.html#comments

http://kalpalata.blogspot.com/

4 comments:

Amin Iskandar said...

Amrita,

If possible can you write about what really happened during the Mumbai bomb blast?

Is it true because of religion matters or there is something else behind?

Here i have one good friend from India. He was a Professor who teach in Chonnam National University.

Few weeks ago i went to his house to watched one Hindi movie, "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayange".. Acted by Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol... he he...

Meera said...

Hi. Well hopefully you are going to be unblocked soon.

http://www.newkerala.com/news3.php?action=fullnews&id=26339

ambrosia said...

To Black: There are all kinds of speculations as to who is behind the blasts but then nothing has come out for definite. The Mumbai local train area is a thoroughfare - anybody could have done anything. No group has claimed responsibility for the act. I think the problem at its root is never solved - as to why certain groups resort to such acts.... so the incidents repeat themselves. As you know, in this country anything of similar character happens all the "Islamic" terrorist groups are rounded up!! Whoever it was, targeted innocent people. It was a conscious act of violence aimed at causing terror amongst the people - the 7 bombs on separate trains - trains which are the lifeline of Mumbai. Further as said before, there is usually a suspicion that Islamist forces are behind such terror attacks - and so there is a fear of some kind of reprisal. But the people of Mumbai have shown calmness and have come out showing solidarity and not reacted to such provocation.

To Meera: We have!! :-)

Absolutely Serendipitous said...

Oh...didn't know about this. thanks for sharing this.