Freedom of Expression

Published in Sci-Tech World
6th May 2006

Freedom of expression is one slogan that is raised quite frequently these days. Whether it is an individual or an organisation, suddenly everyone has realised that they should be able to exercise their right to express themselves without being subjected to restraints. At the same time, they are quick to point out that absolute freedom is not what is sought, but rather a freedom to express oneself with responsibility.

A group of concerned individuals and organisations met at Makati City, Manila, from to April 19 to 21, 2006. The three-day conference was held under the aegis of the South East Asian Press Alliance and the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism. It was titled, “Free Expression in the Asian Cyberspace”. The participants were mainly bloggers, podcasters and/or human rights activists.

The aims of the conference, as outlined by Roby Alampy, Executive Director of SEAPA, were to discuss how individuals and organisations can better explore opportunities to exercise their freedom of expression in the online world and combat the different threats which are arising from it.

In the opening speech, Sheila Coronel, executive director of PCIJ, not only discussed the use of blogs as an alternative media in the hands of people without big resources, corporate names or profit motive, but also narrated the background of the PCIJ blog. The PCIJ blog which was put up last year found itself in the middle of a huge scandal only six weeks later when it uploaded taped conversations of the president with election officials.

“In the last year, there have been one million downloads of that recording and the mobile-phone ring tones that nameless composers fashioned from snippets of the phone conversations. Half a million downloaded the transcript of the conversation in the past year. When our blog crashed, because of the sheer number of downloads, the blogging community came to our rescue, putting up mirror sites where the recording could be accessed,” explained Ms Coronel.

“Throughout the crisis, we posted our blog breaking news reports, analysis and unedited documents and audio material that allowed our readers to sift through the original information themselves,” she further elaborated.

It is no surprise then, that the PCIJ blog was the first in the country to be sued for libel. Sedition charges were also brought up against some of the posts and a few cases are still pending. Projecting the truth is not always easy. This fact was reiterated by the delegates from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore and Burma who talked about the respective lack of press freedom in their countries and how they are using the internet as a platform to reach out to the people.

Specifically, Kunda Dixit, publisher of Nepali Times outlined the positive and negative aspects regarding the power of the internet. According to him, the internet has a diaspora reach - the entire world can know what is going on since the internet cannot be shut down like a print publication. Plus, there is a non-news format and the use of multimedia and opinion polls to inform as well as invite feedback.

Steven Gan, founder and editor of Malaysia Kini explained in the conference how the internet is the only medium in Malaysia which is not owned by the big corporations. The government too, is relatively lenient with the online medium which is why malaysiakini.com was up and running. However, it did get into trouble after it refused to reveal the identities of a few columnists and letter-writers.

The result was a raid on its offices during which computers were seized and documents were searched. However, in July 2005, the case was officially closed and computers were returned in batches. This goes to prove that the truth does prevail sometimes.

But when it does not, one can always return to the internet. Filipino journalist-blogger Manuel Quezon III, gave a few suggestions to those who wanted to push an issue online. He emphasised that the information must be mirrored on several websites so even if one is taken down, the others remain intact. Also, it is vital not to voice strong opinions on the information and let the public decide what stance they want to take.

Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices Online outlined the challenges for the online community. A major challenge is of course to bridge the digital divide. It is all too well to talk about alternative media and its potential. But the fact remains that there are people who do not even know the meaning of the word “blog.”This brings one to the next challenge and that is to do away with the myth that blogging is an elitist activity which has nothing to do with the masses.

Pakistani speakers got a chance to project their issues on the second day of the conference. Dr. Awab Alvi, who is recently running the “Don’t Block the Blog” campaign to get the blogspot ban lifted in Pakistan, spoke on the issue itself which has adversely affected many Pakistani bloggers. Mr. Owais Aslam Ali of Pakistan Press Foundation spoke about the language barrier and how essential it is to put some effective translation services in place to make the internet accessible to all. It is important to analyse in this context: is the internet giving a voice to everyone or is it amplifying the voices that are already there?

A crucial issue discussed at the conference was how 9/11 had resulted in national security laws and the resultant clampdown on online freedom of expression. Jeff Ooi from Reporters Sans Frontiers reported that threats to press freedom had come in the name of anti-terror laws in different countries, with many cyber dissidents being arrested and incarcerated.

There was also an emphasis on the ethical issues in blogging. These were outlined by Melinda Quintos de Jesus from the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility. She pointed out that bloggers had to imbue the same values as a journalist especially if they were reporting news through their blogs — they had to be balanced, fair and accurate.

There were various workshops, most notable being the one on internet security. How to know if you are being blocked or monitored and ways to get around it. It was conducted by Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School and Nart Villeneuve. A survey was also conducted to assess how one could build up on whatever the conference had achieved and take further steps towards online freedom.

In short, the conference was informative as well as enlightening and it did make one appreciate the level of online freedom in one’s own country, given the extreme cases that were presented by some South East Asian countries. But in the end, it all comes down to one point — it is all too well to talk about the internet and freedom of expression. But how is one going to overcome the digital divide throughout Asia to ensure that everyone enjoys the same sort of freedom?