E-Paper
Scorned bloggers to knock court door
They plan to move SC against Govt's move to jam blog sites in wake of 7/11.
Bloggers are planning to move the Supreme Court against the government's move to jam blog sites in the wake of the July 11 Mumbai blasts on suspicion that terrorists might be using them to exchange messages.
"We believe it is undemocratic and against the right to freedom of expression. Though the action is undemocratic and unconstitutional, we will use constitutional means to fight it," Kajal Basu, a web journalist, said Wednesday.
Basu informed that India was likely to have at least 40 million bloggers by 2010.
"There is a core group which is discussing the course of action against the government. Bloggers from all across the globe, especially non-resident Indians, have come together," said Basu.
The journalist also said there were several websites that could still be used to access blogs and "hardcore" bloggers would use them to continue blogging.
"Most of the websites that have been jammed are harmless blog sites and the information posted on them are open for public viewing, Basu said adding that these blog sites were accessible outside India and only Indians were unable to access them.
Basu feared the government might be planning to jam okurt.com and the google earth site too.
Meanwhile, telecom department officials informed that the government was not planning to block any more blog sites.
"Some of the blog sites that have been jammed would continue to be blocked for some more days," said an official.
The official said the government jammed around 22 blog sites after intelligence agencies suspected that terrorists might be using Internet blogs to exchange messages.
The Department of Telecom had issued orders to Internet service providers (ISP) Friday to block the websites, he said adding that the notice was sent to the legal department of these blog sites.
Officials said not all ISPs were jammed, as there were at least 150 ISPs in India.
