> > My view-S. 66A needs to be drafted better, and to actually focus on > deliberate and malicious acts. Also- I don't subscribe to the view that this > section was put in place to intimidate Facebook users who post inconvenient > things.
Yeah, what Lahar said basically. I think incompetence and lack of thinking things through are a much better explanation for 66A than some complex conspiracy theory. The media industry and free speech in India are far from perfect - Mahesh's article lists quite a lot of the problems, but free speech isn't a binary thing - it's a spectrum and for all our faults I think India does pretty well on that spectrum. Not to mention the fact that free speech failures in Western countries often don't get coverage in India (for example, the guy in the UK who was arrested three weeks after the event - under a provision somewhat similar to 66A - for a tweet where he jokingly threatened to blow up an airport that was closed because of snow, because it meant he might have to cancel his holiday). Not just arrested, also convicted, and conviction affirmed on appeal - it took two years and a second level of appeal before the Court of Appeal finally threw out the conviction. And there are plenty of other examples if you look. None of which is to say India is perfect - far from it. Of course there are lots of vested interests in play, both in business and in politics - but we still do pretty well on the free speech front. Badri
