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Comment by prayag | Hacker News Reader

Ok, I will play the devil's advocate here because someone has to. This has been going on since the pre-internet era. India unlike the US and like the UK doesn't have unlimited free speech and have fairly strong defamation and libel laws. This was a rich man's problem because how would you defame someone unless you have access to printing press or can go on radio and television. The internet changed all that. The government doesn't want it to change (for obvious reasons), hence all this hoopla.

Of course the free speech will win because it's almost impossible to censor the internet but the people in power will not go down without a fight.

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In case you are trying to give justifications for these requests because this has been going on since the pre-internet era, then don't - freedom of speech should be a fundamental right of all people.

I am justifying anything. I am telling it how it. People in the US think of freedom of speech as a fundamental right which it should be. This is not the case with most other countries. It's the same as people in other countries thinking that universal healthcare should be a fundamental right, many people in the US don't agree.

I personally am in favor of both being fundamental rights.

I'm NOT from the US, I'm from an ex-Communist Eastern Europe country.

Universal healthcare involves government spending. We do have it were I live, however it's not working out because of a lack of funds. So the medical personnel takes bribery to do their job, otherwise receiving proper care is like winning the lottery. IMHO, universal healthcare is nice to have, however it's not on the same level as freedom of speech.

Nothing else is as important as freedom of speech. Why? Because by having freedom of speech, then the people can make informed decisions regarding their future and the future of their children. And only by having freedom of speech you can then hope for a corruption-free government, that maybe will give you proper universal healthcare when they'll be able to afford it.

@prayag : Right to Freedom of Speech is a legally enforceable Fundamental Right in India. Are we talking about different Indias ?

Nope. We are talking about the same India. I don't know if you have actually read the Constitution of India but the right to expression in India comes with riders. From the Constitution of India Part III Section 19.

This is the foot-note about the Right of Expression: "Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of 4[the sovereignty and integrity of India,] the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.]"

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