Friday, September 23, 2005

Suing Online or Offline

Last week, there was a headline article on the front page of Straits Times that addresses the recent debacle about 2 bloggers who were sued for sedition. Government's stand: Online or Offline, if you fan unrest and discord among the communities, you will be punished. People from left and ring wing all have their views.

Question is, were there evidence that discord and unrest were caused by those remarks of the bloggers? Their "remarks" probably were only brought to light because of the trial. The fact is, there were no fighting or unrest in the community (or at least on the large scale) caused by whatever racists remarks they made. So technically, they did not actually break the law - they were sued in expectations that their remarks will cause unrest. Isn't this prejudice in itself? (Brings to mind "Precrime"? Minority Report?) The fact that this lawsuit has brought incredible reactions from the community and certainly much more response (and dare I say "unrest" among the blogging community?) than the accused's remarks makes me wonder - who's causing more unrest and disturbances among the community? The government or the sued bloggers?

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