PTA,PEMRA,Twitter and censorship.

People in their ignorance demand PTA and PEMRA to exercise ban on unwanted or inappropriate content but these people don’t know or don’t want to know that this paves way for their unwanted control on the media and freedom of expression. They are testing it on Twitter today. If you think some channel is showing something inappropriate then don’t watch it or do protest against it or file a law suit instead of relying on PEMRA and if you think some website content is in appropriate then don’t visit the link or pay some hacker to hack it instead of relying on PTA. PTA and PEMRA are a tool of state totalitarianism.

Today PTA has blocked twitter in Pakistan and it seems they are planning for something worst. It seems state terrorists are afraid that like in Arab spring people will use social media to support a movement of change which is evident in future.

Recent government decision has an interesting timing. Just as when momentum has started to build-up against the decision of imperialist pet Pakistani government and military to restore NATO supply, they blocked twitter to slow down the momentum. This is how any evil government works after their evil actions. They think by suppressing free speech, they can suppress free thought.

We don’t PTA or PEMRA type institutions in Pakistan.

Another attack of State Institutions on Freedom of Expression;Pakistani journalist kidnapped and tortured

Another attack on freedom of expression is made by so called state institutions which run like mafias under few criminals.

Umar Cheema, investigative reporter from The News, was kidnapped and tortured by state institutions. Also the kidnappers threatened that they will do this with other journalists writing against the criminal acts of government and its institutions. Kidnappers told Umar that Ansar Abbasi is next on their list.

CJ LHC has taken suo motto of this incident and an inquiry is being ordered.

We strongly condemn this act of terrorism and whoever is involved must be brought to justice.
———————————————————————————–

LHC CJ takes suo moto notice of Cheema torture. PM Gilani, Nawaz console Umar Cheema on phone

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif on Saturday took suo moto notice of the torture of The News (a local newspaper) reporter Umar Cheema and summoned the Islamabad inspector general police on Monday.
Taking notice of the incident, the chief justice observed that torture of the journalist was an attack on press freedom, which was protected under the Constitution of Pakistan.

“Not only the judiciary but every citizen is duty bound to stop such incidents,” Justice Sharif further observed.

He directed the federal IGP to appear in the court along with the complete case record and apprise it of the facts of the incident. He also directed Additional Advocate General Muhammad Hanif Khatana to assist the court in the matter.

Read complete : http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?231274

The Curious Case Of Vikram Buddhi–>By Dr. Shah Alam Khan

Below is the article by an Indian doctor on the issue of Vikram Buddhi, who got jailed for just expressing his views. Allegedly he just gave few remarks about George W Bush on a website.

Hopefully the guy will find justice and will be freed soon.

Also please sign the petition for Vikram’s release:

http://www.petitiononline.com/freevb/petition.html

The Curious Case Of Vikram Buddhi

Source : http://www.countercurrents.org/khan131209.htm

By Dr. Shah Alam Khan

13 December, 2009
Countercurrents.org

It is ironical that the day President Barrack Obama held his Nobel Peace medal in hand, the American judiciary soiled its hand with blood of justice…….cold and savage. Again the American consciousness failed to separate the good from the bad. And yet again an innocent was sacrificed at the altar of lady of liberty, the symbol of freedom and hope for millions across America. The sentencing of Vikram Buddhi, the IIT Alumnus from India has come as rude shock in this part of the world. The curious case of Mr. Buddhi, a graduate of the IIT Mumbai, is an eye-opener for all those who till date believed in the fairness of the American legal system.

The case of Mr. Vikram Buddhi is perplexing. In December 2005, an Internet message appeared urging the people of Iraq to avenge the death of 312,769 Iraqi women and children. Subsequently this message was traced to the computer of Vikram Buddhi, a graduate student at Purdue University in Indiana. Vikram was picked up for interrogation and released on January 18, 2006 by the U.S. Secret Service, complete with a report that he posed no threat.

For obscure reasons, in May 2006 he was mysteriously picked up again and jailed. The case went to trial, crucial evidence was hidden from the jury by a hostile judge, and a guilty verdict was returned on June 25, 2007. Finally on December 11, 2009 he was handed a four years nine months prison sentence. So much for posting hate messages against the then President George W Bush and his team of gangsters. I suppose if this was his crime, then at least half the world’s population would be behind bars! We all know how popular the butcher of Baghdad was!

America and its claim of freedom has been under the scanner for long. Post 9/11 the American claims of justice, egalitarianism and liberty have been admonished on a regular basis. No wonder, President Obama announced the closing down of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in his first Presidential address to the nation. It is important that in a world with impending terrorist threats every country has a right to defend its land and subjects. But it is also noteworthy that governments have no right to trample human dignity in the name of salvaging freedom and liberty. Needless to say American establishment has a habit to stamp on the rights of others. Their past and recent misadventures in the Middle East, Vietnam, Central America, Rwanda and Afghanistan are an appalling testament for the same.

The tombstones in America’s human right cemetery have a grim story to tell. Vikram Buddhi’s case is not the only one. The mockery of justice and legality in the legally correct land is a regular feature. Although it is a different matter that those who suffer are African Americans, Native Indians or expatriates from the third world; the not so equals in an otherwise “equal & just” American social order.

The most glaring of all cases is that of Gary Tyler, an African-American, who is serving a life sentence in Louisiana. He was convicted by an all-white jury in 1974 for the murder of a 13-year-old Timothy Weber, a white student who was shot during intense racial clashes in Destrehan, Louisiana. Tyler, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has consistently denied involvement in the crime. In yet another story of blatant violation of human rights at the hand of an unjust legal system, two prisoners Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox languish in solitary confinement for the last 37 years in a prison in Angola, Lousiana. Their crime, political activism in prison. No other living prisoner in the United States is believed to have spent so long in solitary confinement as these two. And of course who can forget the thrashing of Rodney King in March 1991 at the hands of Los Angeles Police officers, the custodians of law.

There is no justification to the obscenity of Vikram Buddhi’s remarks on the internet. Equally there is no justification of handing him a half baked prison sentence, concluded in secrecy and painted with prejudice and hate. The American people should realize that it is not what he said is important, but why he said it. The universal detestation for America comes from its extraordinary record of war and destruction across the globe. American hegemony and its fall out is something which should worry the common American as a citizen of this world. Aggression breeds frustration and frustration breeds people who are vulnerable to the follies of the rabid. How lop sided can the American system be in condemning the handling of Roxana Saberi’s case by the Iranian authorities when they themselves have a Vikram Buddhi at hand? Justice is a bewildering weapon. Its presence can be sweet and fresh but equally it can hand a savage blow to the very cause it is meant to fulfill. American establishment and most importantly the American people need to introspect. Vikram’s case has revealed the vulnerability of their system.

It won’t be long before the American dream dies for millions of Indian students who wanted to go the same path as Vikram Buddhi; but for the common American the nightmare has only begun. Freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of identity are at stake. Once all Indians, all Chinese, all Arabs, all Blacks, all Browns and all Natives are swallowed by the legal American anaconda, it will come for their blood.

Dr. Shah Alam Khan
Associate Professor
Department of Orthopedics
All India Institute of Medical Sciences
New Delhi, India

Blogger Jailed For Anti-Bush Remarks

The world has not yet come out of the medieval suppression when people either got killed or get imprisoned for life if they are found guilty for exercising their freedom and criticize the monarchs but this time it has taken a leap and taken a new form of national security policies.

Secret agencies in the name of national security can suppress anyone’s rights and freedom.

Civil society in USA should take a serious note of these events where innocent people like
Dr. Aafia and her children or old journalists like Nayyar Zaidi become easy targets of the
parallel governments in the for security agencies. The prime reasons are similar in these cases
either speaking for justice, belonging to particular race or religion or it can be the case
of just fitting in the profile.

Recent event is of an Indian blogger who was jailed for just making anti-bush remarks over the
internet.

Vikram with a highly educated background was pursuing PhD in cancer research and holds an
excellent academic record.

Civil society and human rights organizations of the world particularly of USA should
demand justice for these victims.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Student jailed indefinitely over alleged anti-Bush remark

Report by Russia Today

Source: http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-10-15/indian-student-jail-bush.html

Internet crime is rapidly becoming a major focus for authorities around the world, but the case of an Indian student, jailed in the US nearly three years ago, is being seen as a major test of human rights in the country.

He was locked up for allegedly threatening the American president George W. Bush via his internet blog.

Before ending up in prison in 2006, Vikram Buddhi was an award-winning student at Purdue University in the United States, pursuing a double PhD in cancer research. His parents in India have been trying to prove his innocence for over three years.

“On February 3, 2006, the Secret Service made a formal report saying Vikram Buddhi is not a threat to the US President or any Secret Service protectees,” says the student’s father Dr. Buddhi Kota Subbarao. “Suddenly, on April 14, they arrest him. There is no new development between these dates. So having said he’s not a threat, how he could become a threat in April 2006?”

Dr. Subbarao is a retired Navy captain and nuclear scientist. His son was eventually found guilty formally, in 2007, of threatening the US President. However, the length of sentence has still not been announced and, without that, the family cannot appeal. Dr. Subbarao believes the entire trial was a miscarriage of justice.

Dr. Subbarao and his son

“The jury was not informed of the law, the defense attorney was told to shut up, and the jury’s questions explaining their confusion – the judge didn’t want to clear the confusion, so the jury got fed up and said guilty,” goes on Dr. Subbarao, “So all these show the trial is unfair, a mistrial must be declared.”

Vikram, 37, is accused of starting a web discussion, calling on Iraqis to take revenge on the US by attacking President George W. Bush. Vikram’s supporters believe he is innocent, because the internet trail does not prove he posted the message.

“He’s been accused of threatening to kill President Bush. How did he threaten – did he buy a weapon, did he write a letter ‘I want to kill you’, did he buy a ticket to Washington DC? What did he do?” demands the student’s lawyer Somnath Bharti.

In fact, Vikram’s family believes that he was targeted because a few months earlier he had publicly spoken out against possible racial discrimination at Indiana’s Purdue University. Vikram defended the case of a black student who was expelled for cheating, by highlighting the fact that three white students, guilty of the same act, were not.

Lawyer Somnath Bharti is sure that “Vikram is an outstanding student who stood against injustice, somebody who speaks up, and such people are not liked.”

Meanwhile, teachers and students of the elite Indian Institute of Technology are demanding the release of Vikram, a former student. They want the Indian government to put pressure on the American administration to look at the legality of the trial.

“The government has done nothing for this boy. Even the basic minimum that should have been done for an Indian citizen who is an alien abroad,” points out student Vijaya M.J. “We’re actually dealing with the US which is supposed to be a friendly country right now. When we have [Barack] Obama and Manmohan [Singh, Indian Prime Minister] shaking hands, and one of our students, completely in an unjust way being arrested and jailed in the US is completely unacceptable.”

They argue web postings are protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution that defends the right to freedom of speech.

“Even though so much is written about the rule of law and freedom of speech, [Americans] in fact live in a great deal of fear. Not only from terrorists, but also from their own security departments. Now, anybody who says anything about the American [president] will face the same fate,” Dr. Subbarao says.

What started out as two concerned parents demanding justice for their son is fast becoming an important precedent for the very nature of free speech in contemporary America. For a nation that prides itself on basic human rights and often lectures those who do not comply, it could soon face tough questions over its own laws of liberty.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwfzKX1Uu4s&feature=player_embedded