Indian Blog Ban Is Not Over

The Indian Blog Ban is not over. Apparently the ISPs in India sought to comply with an order issued by the government that banned several inflammatory Hindu websites ( I know I already said this but I was just reiterating it again ).

The Indian government has finally broken its silence on the ban and issued the following brief press release (text below):

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has instructed all the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country to block only the specified website/webpages on the parent website. The DoT, in its letter issued to all the ISPs has mentioned that it had come to notice that in some cases the parent website had been blocked in contravention to what was stated in its earlier order dated 13th July 2006 whereby it ordered the ISPs to block certain websites/webpages.

As such the DoT has now directed all the ISPs to strictly comply with the order dated 13th July 2006 and provide unhindered access to Internet except for the websites/webpages which have been specifically mentioned in its orders issued from time to time.

The DoT has further sought explanation from the erring ISPs as to why action be not taken against them for blocking unintended websites/webpages.

RM/AMA- 200706 Webpages blocking

I still find it amazing that a country like India, the largest democracy on Earth, filled with so many different people, languages, and religions, would seek to limit people's access to information, inflammatory or not.