Life Of Navin

In news that some may find shocking, while others may have expected, a university report has said that more bloggers are facing arrest, for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments.

The University of Washington annual report has claimed that Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on blogs. Also,In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006. More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in the countries of China, Egypt and Iran.

Citizens have faced arrest and jail for blogging about many different topics, said the World Information Access (WIA) report. Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task. Oh yeah, they deserve to be in jail for that!!

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the growing political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during "times of political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.

The report found that the average prison sentence for blogging was 15 months. The longest sentence found by the WIA was eight years!! It acknowledged that the true number of bloggers arrested could be far higher than the total it found as, in some cases, it proved hard to verify if an arrest had taken place and on what grounds.

Also, as many as 30 countries imposed technological restrictions on what people can do online, said the report. In nations such as China this made it difficult for people to use a blog as a means of protest.

The report predicted that the number of blogger arrests in 2008 would exceed the 36 seen in 2007 thanks to greater popularity of blogging as a medium, greater enforcement of net restrictions, and elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US among others.

Anybody heard of "Freedom of Speech "?? Even the preamble of our country, lists liberty of thought.........

The Preamble of the Constitution reads as follows:

We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:
Justice, social, economic and political;
Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
Equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all.
Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation; in our constituent assembly this twenty-sixth of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution.

Then why?? All I can say is "for every blogger suppressed, a million shall rise, an army of truth, a brigade that cannot be pushed down, the uprising has already begun!! May the Truth Prevail"