Govt decides to clampdown on blogs !!!

Yeah ..this is very unfortunate. I have been trying to access various blogs since yesterday and have found that all of them were down which i thought to be some temporary problem with blogger until i saw today's newspaper. Here it goes..

" Immediately after 7/11, the department of telecommunication (DoT) issued a fiat to the 150-odd internet service providers (ISPs) to clamp down on a handful of sites, including a few popular blogs. The move has provoked stinging criticism from the blogging community which has now gone into a funk. Most say the clampdown is an attempt to repress free speech and that the government has overstepped bounds.

A DoT official admitted the department had asked ISPs to block a few sites. While he did not name these sites, he quoted intelligence reports indicating that members of banned organisations were using certain blogs to transmit messages to their colleagues. Unlike emails that can be tracked, he noted, blogs cannot be tracked as easily, which was why a clampdown was essential.

The DoT letter has asked ISPs to block sites like hindunity.org and exposingtheleft.blogspot.com although it did not state the reasons.

Ban on blogs not a foolproof one
Mumbai: In the attempt to block specific blogs, bloggers claim the entire community was victimised. They pointed out that popular blogging sites like blogspot.com and typepad.com remained inaccessible through the day.

When TOI contacted MTNL, it denied having received any such directive. However, at least three large ISPs in Delhi and Mumbai, all of whom spoke off the record, confirmed that they did receive communication from DoT asking them to block a few sites. But they were quick to point out that this did not include popular blogger jaunts like Blogspot. “If they did pass such an order, it would a public relations disaster for the government,’’ one of them said.

More importantly, the block is still not national. Internet users in smaller cities were still able to access sites that were apparently blocked. However, clairifies an ISP Association of India official: “The 150 ISPs are spread all over the country and they will implement the ban after they receive the communication.’’

Internet users say that the government action to block sites is not entirely foolproof. There are too many places bloggers hang out like livejournal.com. "

I have been busy for the past few days trying to finishing the documentation of my project which had been and still eluding from completion, but when I had read this article in the newspaper, I was forced to access the blogs through the tools which circumvent Internet censorship.

Hope this article does rounds and informs the bloggers, most of whom are still ignorant about this directive from the govt.