The perils of censorship in the age of tech

As newer and newer technologies come, it becomes easier for the citizens to make their voices heard. But that always rattles the governments of the day and there are always renewed efforts to censor those voices

- Sunil Rajguru

While America's First Amendment in 1791 safeguarded their citizens free speech along with that of the press; India's First Amendment curiously in 1951 put restrictions on freedom of speech and expression.

Despite that there was freedom of the press and the citizens made their voices heard very loudly, especially in the early 1970s. That led to the Emergency of 1975-77. However, its end led to a more vocal press and citizens along with the concept of the public interest litigation (PIL).

THE POST-EMERGENCY ERA

Newspapers and magazines flourished in the 1980s as TV sets mushroomed all over India. The next attempt to muzzle the press came in 1988 via the Defamation Bill. That was seen as a draconian anti-press move but luckily there was so much outrage that it was shelved.

It may have been one of the reasons for the government ultimately being defeated in 1989.

The 1990s saw Liberalization, satellite TV and the Internet. Public discourse was changed for good. We had multiple narratives 24X7. We ended the millennium thinking that censorship was a thing of the past and there were simply too many channels of freedom of speech to clamp down upon.

THE NEW MILLENNIUM