THE_MEDIA_DB - Essay Example

In democracy, people have the freedom to profess what they believe. There is freedom of speech and expression. The American declaration of independence, the French declaration of the rights of man etc. have emphasised the importance of freedom. Freedom is essential for the all round development and personality of the individual. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also emphasised the importance of freedom. All democratic constitutions of the word provide freedom to the people. So, there is no doubt that freedom is essential and most popular struggles have been for freedom.

Now the question is to what extent freedom is permissible? Is complete freedom desirable? If freedom is to be restricted, who has the power to do so? It is an accepted view that freedom is to be restricted in such a way that one’s exercise of freedom should not affect exercise of similar freedom by other individuals and should not take away the rights of other individuals. The issues mentioned above are relevant to internet freedom also. Virtual space has become a reality. Internet has penetrated to every part of the world.

It is the era of e-governance and e -commerce. People spent more time at internet than before. Information, political or otherwise is acceble to all. Social networking sites are growing and corporate sector is also making use of the facilities associated with internet. The internet provides opportunity for people to relate with anybody in any part of the world. It is easy to spread ideas and form groups. So, there is reason to believe that internet promotes freedom and democracy. With the help of internet, administration has become more transparent.

Political parties and candidates conduct election campaigns using internet. In a recent university address titled “Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices and Challenges in a Networked World,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton berated authoritarian regimes and praised the people of Tunisia and Egypt for using digital tools to organise democratic protests (On real Internet Freedom). In that address Mrs. Clinton underscored high opportunity cost for countries which filter or shut down the Internet (On real Internet Freedom).

She praised twitter for helping frustrated citizens of the Arab world. It can be said that discontent in Tunisia exploded in public anger when Wiki Leaks published the cables on the U.S. ambassador's assessment of corruption by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (On real Internet Freedom). The Tunisian uprising was triggered by the revelations of wiki leaks and internet. In the era of wiki leaks, publishing secrets is a major danger of unchecked internet. The judicial position on the Pentagon Papers on Vietnam, refusing to grant prior restraint on publication of classified documents, serves as a clear guide for internet freedom (On real Internet Freedom).

While acknowledging the fact that internet freedom is important, unchecked internet freedom pause certain dangers to the political world. One such danger is related to secrecy. It is natural that every individual, organisation and state has some secret things which it wants to keep private and do not like to disclose. In the interest of national interest, a state has a right to keep certain things secret. It may be a part of the strategy. Disclosing such things might hamper national security.

Internet facilitates publication of such documents as evidence by wiki Leaks. But this is not a reason shut down internet