On 2 Dec 2012, at 12:45, Badri Natarajan <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> 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. > > 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.
While India is still relatively free, speech-wise, the last few years have seen a narrowing of that freedom, and freedoms of association and assembly, in the name of security, law and disorder and appeasement of various kinds. The risks of being charged with sedition, harassment by authorities, and impunity for those seeking retribution for alleged offence caused have all grown. As Badri points out this trend is not unique to India with countries ranging from the USA, UK and Canada to Ethiopia, Russia, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Hungary, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, among others, all raising the penalties for dissent. The erosion of civil liberties justified by the "war on terror" was exacerbated by the accelerated shift in geo-political power following the financial crisis and further exacerbated by governments' responses to the Arab Spring, OWS and other protest movements of recent years. These charts from Freedom House's 2012 report underscore the fact that while the long arc does tend toward freedom: http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/Global%20Data%20Pie%20Graphs_draft.pdf recent years have seen setbacks: http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/Aggregate%20Change%20Graph%20Since%202003--draft.pdf http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/Historical%20Country%20Ratings%2C%20FIW%202012--draft.pdf Online communication has come in for particular attention across countries with governments seeking greater powers of surveillance and censorship, overtly and covertly, sometimes abetted by commercial interests. It is also true, however, that citizens are better informed about, better armed with tools, and better organised to respond to, the threats. Also, the impact of state actions on young, urban, middle-class, well-connected groups in particular have considerably expanded the constituency of people opposing the erosion of rights and freedoms. Interesting times! Ingrid
