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The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Congress’s stealth Stalinism
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- Government’s recent proposal to impose censorship on online news portals, Websites and blogs smacks of fear and insecurity similar. It reminds us of the dark days of the Emergency
- About three weeks ago, the Government released a draft proposal that seeks to censor online news portals, websites and blogs for a wide variety of security and national interest reasons. Part of an amendment to the Information Technology Act, the proposal doesn’t stipulate any prior hearing for the said websites and blogs.
- The proposal empowers every State and Central Government to decide whether a particular news item, blog, article or advertisement is deemed offensive.
- The host of the ‘offending’ website who doesn’t comply with the Government’s ban order is liable to be imprisoned for seven years.
- It will create an Orwellian scenario with these bureaucrats acting as ‘Online Thought Police’.
- In plain words: Stealth Stalinism.
- But what is more shocking is that this has largely gone unnoticed. The secular media that behaved like the Congress’s handmaid during the recent election has largely paid lip service, if not completely ignored, this latest threat to the basic right of citizens in a democracy.
- all right-thinking Indians need to disseminate this proposal more extensively and highlight the potential havoc that it could wreak.
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