Excerts fro, http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/19blogs.htm As news of the blockade spread to the national and international media, Indian bloggers -- organised under the Bloggers Against Censorship banner -- continued to devise a strategy to counter it. Some have filed Right to Information applications, while others are considering a Public Interest Litigation. They say they are against any kind of censorship, even that of non-blog Web sites such as HinduUnity.org
Interestingly, the Indian consulate in New York has also sought to explain the ban. According to e-mail sent by A R Ghanashyam, deputy consul general, to a representative of the South Asian Journalists Association, a write up containing derogatory references to Islam and had the potential to inflame religious sensitivities, had appeared on a blog. DoT took up the matter but, because of a technological error, ISPs went beyond what was expected of them, resulting in 'the unfortunate blocking of all blogs.' HinduUnity.org and HinduHumanRights.org are among 17 sites sought to be blocked, on the grounds that they are spreading Hindu nationalist propaganda. Accessed through an anonymizer, HinduUnity.org was found to have articles against Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and Indian Muslims. It also had a 'hit list' of people it considered anti-Hindu. Another site on the list is Rahulyadav.com, set up by a US-based person who calls himself a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Dalitstan.org, on the other hand, calls itself a 'human rights organisation working for the upliftment of Dalits.' None of the sites seem to possess any direct security threat to India, or have any connection with the recent Mumbai blasts. Even more bizarre are the blogs sought to be blocked. 'Princess Kimberley' is a defunct blog with just two postings in 2004 about an American teenager's depressing life. 'Commonfolk Commonsense' is a Chinese language blog, while 'Exposing the Left' is written by someone in Southern Illinois! DoT has not explained why these sites need to be restricted from viewing by Indians And a new post in exposingleft.blogspot.com says that they are very happy because of the ban in india and they got a dranstic increase in viewership. The list of sites blocked 1. http://www.hinduunity.org 2. http://mypetjava.mu.nu 3. http://pajamaeditors.blogspot.com 4. http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com 5. http://thepiratescove.us 6. http://commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com 7. http://bamapachyderm.com 8. http://prinesskimberly.blogspot.com 9. http://merrimusings.typepad.com 10. http://mackers-world.com 11. http://dalitstan.com 12. http://hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html 13. http://nndh.com (fax scan unclear, could be wrong) 14. http://bloodroyaltriped.com 15. http://imagessearchyahoo.com 16. http://imamali8.com 17. http://rahulyadav.com Number 15 on that list, imagessearchyahoo.com, is a typo for image.search.yahoo.com, Yahoo!'s image search site. The typo domain is also owned by Yahoo!. Searching for images via a typo of the domain name is against the national interest? I'd love to see how the government justifies this one. But most of the media reported it as these sites are terrorist sites & it is inorder to stop terrorists in the light of mumbai bomb blast. but i still belive that no censorship will work over internet Anivar Aravind http://movingrepublic.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
