Thursday 20 July 2006

As Martin Niemöller didn't say

When the DoT came for the religious fundamentalists,
I remained silent;
I was not a religious fundamentalist.

When they blocked the leftists,
I remained silent;
I was not a leftist.

When they came for the libertarians,
I did not speak out;
I was not a libertarian.

When they came for the litbloggers,
I did not speak out;
I was not a litblogger.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

The original

What the heck, since we're ripping off the good pastor, we might as well continue to sermonise ponderously. Here's what we wrote to the Bloggers Collective early this morning, with a few links added:
Congratulations! (and a but..)

Pat yourself on the back.

It is absolutely fabulous that the pressure created by we few, we happy few (as of the time when the news of the blanket ban being lifted came out, this group was just 357 people strong) has pushed the ISPAI to rethink the ban. Hopefully, it will also make the Government rethink its policies.

Which brings me to the "but.."

Much remains to be done. Remember, it could be your blog tomorrow, getting banned all by itself, with no horde of angry bloggers coming to rescue you.

There are threads on this group and a page on the wiki about a possible Public Interest Litigation. There is also a lot of information in both places about the Right To Information act, as well as plans to file petitions. Please follow those threads, and keep the momentum going on this movement in favour of free speech for all of us.

2 comments:

Publia said...

This is why bloggers worldwide must fight censorship, united as members of one community.

Publia said...

This is why bloggers worldwide must fight censorship, united as members of one community. I've been thinking a lot about that poem.