Free Speech on the Net / Web (whatever you want to call it...!)

I've just caught a story on the beeb regarding freedom of speech on the netweb (couldn't decide what to stick to...). Have a gander at it here, it's worth a look. The rough gist of the story is that amnesty international want bloggers to publicise plight of bloggers who basically get banged up in prison for writing their online journals.

It's pretty thought provoking to read this guy's story on his own blog, the poor bastard's probably getting his finger nails pulled out as we speak. It's worth having an online drift through this to some of the other links mentioned. This is quite a disturbing one that some of you might remember about a 16 yr old girl in Iran who was executed by some sadistic islamic nut (who happened to be a rather ordinary , the guy even kindly put on the noose himself, how nice of him....

Must admit that if I had my way, I'd line all these bastards up and shoot them. You might start thinking "wouldn't that make you as bad as them"? It's a tricky one that always prevents us from doing anything to help. Debating morals rather than taking action. Even when we do take action, it's often the wrong action and as we all know it's for all the wrong reasons. However, there's no doubt that our lack of action will result in our downfall eventually. Well, that and the fact that the thinkers are tending not to have 10 kids a pop.

I take my hat off to the beeb though, they're quite happy to publicise a blog that slags them off on the first page (specifically targeting Radio 4 for pro Islamic republic article). Good stuff beeb!

Anyway, i've noticed that the UN have decided to set up a conference to discuss the future of the webnet. I'm sure they'll decide on something this side of the next ice age.

It's certainly interesting to look at different perspectives on the internet. It seems that the Chinese quite simply see it as another channel of communication that should be controlled, simple as that. Policy towards the use of the internet for free speech has been exactly the same as the approch to TV and press, i.e. there shouldn't be any! It certainly brings a reality check to those who thought the internet was free entity with no geolocation. Unfortunately in China, the internet is chinese and is owned by the state. Whether this is a good thing or not doesn't really matter, it's reality at work.