Unblogged, but Net result is zero

2006-07-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Indian blogosphere is free from the ‘shackles’ of Government’s iron grip but the mood is far from celebratory.
The blogging community is in no hurry to pop the bubbly just yet. Avid bloggers believe being able to access blogs again isn't reason enough to celebrate.
“We were able to access blogs anyway, the core issue still remains,” a blogger, Abhishek Baxi, says.
The “issue” here is that of Internet censorship. Last week, the Department of Telecommunications directed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block 17 blog sites – a move that resulted in entire domains like Yahoo!, Geocities and Blogspot being blocked.
Baxi filed a petition demanding the reasons for this under the Right to Information Act. He is now awaiting a response before he makes his next move.
“If we feel the Government was right and it was the ISPs who screwed up, we will file a PIL against them,” Baxi says.
Baxi, however, believes there’s a positive side to the issue as well. He says the entire censorship episode has succeeded in uniting the Indian blogging community.
Baxi and many others like him say they aren't going to let the matter rest until they find a foolproof method of preventing future such restrictions on their freedom of expression.