Internet should be regulation, policing free: I&B Minister

15102013

Manish Tiwari Firebrand Minister of I& B, always give impressive speech,this time pointing poised attitude of government to give user free hand in using the means of internet ,technology moving with fastest pace and is seen the revolution in service industry to bring magic changes in our life attitude and actions.India is of half literates and where ethics override the greed and lust and everyone wants to make fast buck,the minister thus pleading for regulation in some sense makes sense but self discipline and self regulation is buzz word.
Furthermore Ministers do make sacred comments and assure pleasantries but is seen to ask for pound of flesh in case the criticism of the ruling class go beyond their standards.
Secondly the minister’s assurance was welcomed by most of people at joint meet of FICCI but most of the media and private sector experts said the intervention of the private sector in drafting the content of regulation is necessary and if government fail to inject the representation from the private sector in totality their draft and final regulation imposed will always be challenged by the intellectuals and people at large.
The Indian government thus waits for international convention at Geneva to gather mass for the masses. Their exercise at home looks scarce and scanty.Thus more and more clashes and differential ideation to spring up in coming months and years in this rapid developing communication seen by the world instant gainer in all field but its devil affect has also been felt at various events in various countries.

The Internet should be free of policing and regulation but there should be agreed global rules of engagements in this new media space, I&B Minister Manish Tewari suggested on Monday.

“We do not believe that there should be a regulation or policing of the Internet but simultaneously we believe that just as common rules of engagement have emerged in various spheres, they need to emerge in the new media space also because it is a virtual civilisation also which has its own dynamics,” he said.

“My personal view is that it is extremely important that an agreed global rules of engagement emerge as quickly as possible,” he said in his speech on ‘freedom of expression in Internet age’ at a function in New Delhi.

According to him, the rules of engagement are important because hardware responsible for dissemination of information over the Internet may not be under the control of a state at whom it is targeted.

He said this as he noted that though cyber world enables grass-root democratisation, it is also having the potential of inflicted destruction.

Tewari highlighted the mass exodus of people hailing from the northeast from southern states last year after rumours of attack on them spread like wild fire to drive home his point. He also referred to the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar, stating that a video posted on Youtube had flared up the entire incident.

“What the government do when people are fanning violence. Should not the government have the legal and technological way to stop such activity,” he sought to know. Tewari said the time is ripe to distinguish between right to privacy and right to anonymity.

He felt that the difficulty in policing freedom of speech and expression is where to draw the line. “The dilemma is should freedom of speech or expression be policed at all. But juxtaposed with that is also the reality that freedom of speech is an expression at times can create situation which lead to potential law and order issues where state and law machineries need to step in,” he said.