India Curtails Access to Blogs

YOU WON'T READ IT HEAR FIRST: INDIA CURTAILS ACCESS TO BLOGS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
As India’s financial capital, Mumbai, observed a moment of silence on Tuesday to commemorate the seven bombings of commuter trains seven days ago, a blistering silence blanketed the Indian blogosphere. For reasons yet to be articulated by the authorities, the government has directed local Internet service providers to block access to a handful of Web sites that are hosts to blogs, including the popular blogspot.com, according to government officials and some of the providers. The move has sown anger and confusion among Indian bloggers, who accuse the government of censorship and demand to know why their sites have been jammed. Nilanjana Roy, a Delhi-based writer who runs kitabkhana.blogspot.com, a literary blog, called it “a dangerous precedent. You have a right to know what is being banned, and why it’s being banned,” she said. “I can understand if it’s China or Iran or Saudi Arabia. I'm truly appalled when it’s my country doing this.” The ban, which has come into effect in recent days, means that people living in India are, in theory, kept from reading anything that appears on the blocked platforms, whether Indian blogs or otherwise. But the ban seems far from effective. Some Internet providers have blocked access. Others have not, and many more blog aficionados have figured out how to continue reading their favorite sites.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/asia/19india.html
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* Indian Government Blocks Web Access
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR200607...