Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Google and Indian Government Censoring Radia Tapes News

Once again Google is censoring news in India. Once again Google is trying to prevent the dirty linen of Indian government from being displayed publically. However, neither Google nor Indian government can hide corruption, scams and controversies as they cannot curb the online media as per their own political interests.  

According to the latest alert by the exclusive blog on censorship initiatives of Google and Indian government, Google has once again obliged Indian government by succumbing to its censorship request. Thus, Google continues to censor news in India on behalf of Indian government.

Google has censored the news item titled “Radia Tapes, Ratan Tata’s Privacy, Fundamental Rights and Public Interest” on 05-09-2012. At the time of writing of this article on 06-09-2012, the news item is still censored. Even the posts pertaining to this disclosure at censorship blog and other blogs have been manipulated and censored by Google.

We would come up with more updates in this regard very soon. Further, we also plan to provide a consolidated post covering all these articles at a single place so that it can be circulated to maximum number of individuals.

Radia Tapes Related News Censored By Google

Indian government has a strange method to deal with corruption. Instead of elimination of corruption, the Indian government tries to eliminate corruption exposing news. This is not new for us as we have been facing censorship at the hands of Google and Indian government for long.

As per the latest alert by the exclusive blog on censorship initiatives of Google and Indian government, Google has once again obliged Indian government by becoming its censorship buddy. Thus, Google continues to censor news in India on behalf of Indian government.

Google has censored the news item titled “Radia Tapes, Ratan Tata’s Privacy, Fundamental Rights and Public Interest” on 05-09-2012. It seems the Indian government has become too fussy about disclosing the source of leaks of Radia tapes. The Supreme Court of India has been asking for long about the source of leak, but Indian government does not care. In the end we would never know who leaked the tapes.

This censorship act has another important aspect attached to it. By censoring the news regarding demands for strengthening and preserving public interest, Indian government is also indirectly trying to manipulate proceeding at the Supreme Court. This is clearly against the rights provided by Indian constitution.

According to Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal expert of Asia and managing partner of ICT law firm Perry4Law, “The Indian Constitutional Scheme is based upon “Balance of Rights” and no right is absolute in nature. In case of conflict between two Fundamental Rights, the Fundamental Right that strengthens and substantiate the Public Interest should prevail”. Hence if there is a conflict between Right to Privacy and Right to Information/know, information can be disclosed in certain circumstances to substantiate and strengthen Public Interest, opines Dalal. 

Thus, the present censorship act is not only violative of our freedom of speech and expression but also our right to information. Similarly, it is also a direct attempt to curb public interest so that corruption related activities remain under cover. We will update all on this issue very soon. We also expect that Supreme Court of India would take note of these negative tactics of Google and Indian government.