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Media censorship is impossible, Jaitley

New Delhi: Censorship of information in the present age is "an impossibility", Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said today but observed that aberrations like 'paid news' are likely to creep in when news organisations do not have "realistic" financial models.

He said the definition of news and the behaviour of consumer have changed with technological advancement and "something that camera cannot capture is hardly news these days".

Articulating his views on the media scene at a function here, Jaitley said, "One of the worries is that the financial model for all (news) organisations must be a realistic model. Because if the financial model is not a realistic model, then imperfections will enter. And these imperfections will lead to aberrations. Paid news is one such aberration."

Paid news has been a concern about which even the Election Commission has been looking at ways to deal with.

At the same time, he made it clear that media censorship in the current age was not possible.

"Fortunately, there are very few dictatorships in the world. But even if there were, censorship, because of technology itself would be an impossibility," he said.

Jaitley, who also holds Finance Ministry portfolio, said that in this age of competition and to gain more eyeballs, it may seem that quality is being compromised. However, he added that he had faith that in the long run, the best will succeed.

He said the rapid advances of technology in broadcasting sector have brought along their own challenges and it is difficult to predict the future horizons of this evolution.

With tools of information dissemination freely available, Jaitley said he had at times read his own speeches which he had never delivered.

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Media censorship is impossible, Jaitley

New Delhi, Jan 15:

Censorship of information in the present age is an impossibility, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said today but observed that aberrations like paid news are likely to creep in when news organisations do not have realistic financial models.

He said the definition of news and the behaviour of consumer have changed with technological advancement and something that camera cannot capture is hardly news these days.

Articulating his views on the media scene at a function here, Jaitley said, One of the worries is that the financial model for all (news) organisations must be a realistic model. If the financial model is not a realistic model, then imperfections will enter. And these imperfections will lead to aberrations. Paid news is one such aberration.

Paid news has been a concern about which even the Election Commission has been looking at ways to deal with.

At the same time, he made it clear that media censorship in the current age was not possible.

Fortunately, there are very few dictatorships in the world. But even if there were, censorship, because of technology itself would be an impossibility, he said.

Jaitley, who also holds Finance Ministry portfolio, said that in this age of competition and to gain more eyeballs, it may seem that quality is being compromised. However, he added that he had faith that in the long run, the best will succeed.

He said the rapid advances of technology in broadcasting sector have brought along their own challenges and it is difficult to predict the future horizons of this evolution.

With tools of information dissemination freely available, Jaitley said he had at times read his own speeches which he had never delivered.

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Media censorship is impossible, says Jaitley

Facebook likes free speech, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended his decision to condemn the recent terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine on free speech grounds, despite his companys willingness to censor some content.

Zuckerbergs status update on 9 January promising a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence sparked a debate about Facebooks own censorship, from breastfeeding photos to a post by Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbass that questioned the value of insulting speech.

Unsurprisingly, the subject of his Charlie Hebdo post came up during Zuckerbergs latest public question and answer session, held this week in Colombia where Facebook is launching its Internet.org initiative to get more people online.

He was asked why he had spoken out about the Charlie Hebdo attack, but not about other violent events around the world, including in Iraq and Palestine.

It wasnt just a terrorist attack about just trying to do some damage and make people afraid and hurt people. This was specifically about peoples freedom of expression and ability to say what they want, said Zuckerberg.

Although he took pains to stress that all terrorist incidents are really horrible, Zuckerberg said he spoke out about Charlie Hebdo because he saw it as an attack of freedom of expression, and so particularly relevant to Facebook.

That really gets to the core of what Facebook and the internet are, I think, and what were all here to do. We really stand up and try to make it so that everyone can have as much of a voice as possible, he said.

There are limits and restrictions on these things, but across the board we generally are always trying to fight to help as many people as possible share as much as they want. This event just seemed like an event where people needed to come together not only to fight back against terrorism... but also to stand up for giving everyone in the world a voice.

A follow-up question from a member of the audience at the Q&A asked whether Facebook would break the law in countries where free speech is restricted, to defend those principles.

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Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook censorship despite Charlie Hebdo support

Facebook likes free speech, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebooks chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended his decision to condemn the recent terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine on free speech grounds, despite his companys willingness to censor some content.

Zuckerbergs status update on 9 January promising a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence sparked a debate about Facebooks own censorship, from breastfeeding photos to a post by Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbass that questioned the value of insulting speech.

Unsurprisingly, the subject of his Charlie Hebdo post came up during Zuckerbergs latest public question and answer session, held this week in Colombia where Facebook is launching its Internet.org initiative to get more people online.

He was asked why he had spoken out about the Charlie Hebdo attack, but not about other violent events around the world, including in Iraq and Palestine.

It wasnt just a terrorist attack about just trying to do some damage and make people afraid and hurt people. This was specifically about peoples freedom of expression and ability to say what they want, said Zuckerberg.

Although he took pains to stress that all terrorist incidents are really horrible, Zuckerberg said he spoke out about Charlie Hebdo because he saw it as an attack of freedom of expression, and so particularly relevant to Facebook.

That really gets to the core of what Facebook and the internet are, I think, and what were all here to do. We really stand up and try to make it so that everyone can have as much of a voice as possible, he said.

There are limits and restrictions on these things, but across the board we generally are always trying to fight to help as many people as possible share as much as they want. This event just seemed like an event where people needed to come together not only to fight back against terrorism... but also to stand up for giving everyone in the world a voice.

A follow-up question from a member of the audience at the Q&A asked whether Facebook would break the law in countries where free speech is restricted, to defend those principles.

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Mark Zuckerberg defends censorship policies despite Charlie Hebdo support

Joel Simon "The Next Censorship"
http://www.politics-prose.com/event/book/joel-simon-new-censorship-inside-global-battle-media-freedom Free collection and expression of information is a kind...

By: Politics and Prose

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Joel Simon "The Next Censorship" - Video