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[1] From: dnrad1 <dnrad1@sancharnet.in> Date: Tue May 17, 2005 Subject: Bhagalpur riots Local court sentences 10 to life term The Statesman The Statesman 17-5-05 Bhagalpur riots Local court sentences 10 to life term Sixteen years after one of the worst communal massacres since Partition, 10 people have been convicted in the Bhagalpur riots and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Sessions court. This particular case dealt with the killing of five Muslims by a mob on 14 October 1989. Thirteen others were acquitted. This is the first case of the infamous riots in which over a 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the most brutal fashion, has gone as far as a conviction and sentence. The convicted still have the right of appeal to a higher court. If it has taken 16 years for the case to get this far, how long will it be before the matter is finally determined? The misery of the next of kin of victims waiting for justice is unimaginable. The modus operandi was repeated again and again in other communal riots in UP, Bihar, Bombay in 1992-93, culminating in the Gujarat genocide in 2002. Calculated anti-Muslim indoctrination of the masses, particularly the police force by RSS and VHP sympathisers over a period of time has taken its toll. Taking out "religious" processions through Muslim areas by sympathisers of the VHP/RSS, with provocating slogans, and attacking shops and mosques have been frequent. Official records show that 982 people were killed of which 584 bodies were not found. The unofficial figure is much higher. For days after the massacre, mutilated bodies were turning up in drains, sewers and wells where they were dumped. The fate of other cases of a similar kind is till undecided. After such a delay even horrific riots like Bhagalpur may be forgotten and an entire generation has grown without knowing that something that like this even happened. Cases in other subsequent riots are also in court. Perpetrators of such mob violence seem to get away with murder. Victims of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 are still waiting for justice. Let it not be forgotten that victims of the Gujarat genocide are also waiting for justice. ------------------------------------------------------- [2] From: "Arif N. Khan" <ank2000pk@yahoo.com> Date: Tue May 17, 2005 Subject: Freedom of Expression Freedom of Expression by Shah Nawaz Khan Editor, Weekly Fraternity Briefs I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. This is a paraphrase of Voltaire's sentiments in his Essay on Tolerance. In 1770, that great French philosopher and a leader of enlightment wrote to M. Le Riche: "Monsieur l'Abb?©, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." Since the last century, leaders like Adlai Stevenson have been advocating free speech and regarded that as the first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Although freedom of speech is now guaranteed under the constituition of most of the democratic countries, there are certain things that are not allowed and we aren't free to shoot from the mouth or in ink such things as Obscenity, incitement to illegal action, Defamation, and Blasphemy. There are also regulations, laws and normms on things like publishing, advertising and harassment, about which activists of press freedom are concerned and are struggling to remove flaws and excesses. Censorship of press is being abandoned from most countries. Censor boards for movies are now taking more liberal views in South Asia and Far East but not in Afghanistan and Pakistan where extremist elements object even to female models for advertising but their despotic and bigoted attitudes are criticized by moderate Muslims. Although the freedom of press in US and most of Europe is considered exemplary, we hear vioces for reforms. Today, many leading papers and magazines are in the clutches of big business. Many are now part of some vast conglomerate with Television and many news and entertainment products. The companies are publicly listed on the and their shareholders want to see bigger earnings each and every quarter. Whole issue of a magazine or a paper can now be sponsored by a single corporate advertiser. This, at a minimum, raises questions about just how independent the editors are from those who buy the ads or own large chunk of shares. It is widely believed that the planned and sustained campaign in the Western media to demonize Islam is directed by the big business owned by American and European Jews and pro-Zionists elements. In great many countries Blasphemy has been a crime of speaking or publishing words that vilify or ridicule God, the Bible, or religious beliefs. Scurrility and a resultant tendency to provoke a public disturbance are the criteria for blasphemy. Laws provide punishment for it but are held to be in consonance with the laws that protect freedom of speech. Blasphemy is still a crime in Britain and in most of the United States, but prosecutions are now rare. British novelist of Indian descent, Salman Rushdie whose book The Satanic Verses (1988) was banned in several Islamic countries. In 1989 Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Rushdie and everyone involved in the book's publication should be put to death. Although Rushdie offered an apology, the punishment was not withdrawn he remains in hiding with rare public appearances in the West. In 1990 he said in an interview to Guardian, "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Rushdie now lives life a scared rat hiding in holes and mostly travelling incognito or in disguise. Irshad Manji the Ismaili woman and author of 'The Trouble with Islam' seems to be one his admirers. In Pakistan the measures taken by Zia regime to Islamize banking and introduce Hudood Ordinance are now considered full of flaws. A Commission headed by Justice Majidah Rizi is said to have recommended many modifications. The clauses of Huddod Ordinace specially those relating to Blasphemy law are not considered to be in exact consonance with Quran and Sunnah. Laws regarding Defamation vary from country to country and generally it is regarded as the act of damaging the reputation of another by means of false and calumnious communications. In common law, defamation in writing is classified as libel, and oral defamation as slander. In most countries Libel suits are almost always pursued as civil actions for financial damages. The targets of claims are often the mass media. However, libel suits against nonmedia defendants can arise. But in countries like Saudi Arabia and other Kingdoms there is no telling what would happen to someone accused of defaming the royal family or some important member of the ruling elite. In democratic countries in most cases actual injury must be proved before financial damages may be awarded. If proved, damages are available for monetary losses#8212;such as loss of business or of a job#8212;as well as for other types of losses, including harm to the victim's reputation or emotional distress. In addition, punitive damages (aimed to punish the libeler rather than to compensate the victim) have also been awarded but clever people can escape any punishment as seen in many scandals of sexual indiscretion involving famous personalities. As one Indian writers opines among the grounds on which free speech may legitimately be subjected to reasonable restrictions is contempt of court. However, this is also an area where, despite the maturing of the democratic tradition over the last five decades and more, the balance is sharply tilted against the press and others who seek to exercise their fundamental right to freedom of expression. The definition of contempt is so elastic and open to subjective interpretation and the process itself is so unfair #8212; with the court acting as the complainant, prosecutor, and judge rolled into one #8212; that a person charged has little chance of getting away with anything other than an apology. It is a power that the Indian Supreme Court itself has described in one of its judgments as "a vague and wandering jurisdiction with uncertain frontiers." Things in Pakistan have been worst than India but both in India and Pakistan from the standpoint of the press and the media, it inhibits vigorous debate and generates a tendency to play safe when reporting and commenting on matters relating to the judiciary and in Pakistn the military junta. However it must be appreciated that never before we have seen such freedom of media in Pakistan as allowed by he present regime but still there is a long way to go to achieve the same kind of freedom as under the international norms and as depicted in the following quote: "If we don#8217;t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don#8217;t believe in it at all." _Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), U.S. Linguist, political analyst. ------------ You can read this and many other articles at http://www.netvert.biz/paklink/articles |
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